MTC completes Celtel buyout

Highway Africa News Agency recalls that under the terms of the agreement, MTC acquired 85% of the issued and outstanding shares of Celtel in April 2005 with a commitment to purchase the remaining 15% of the shares, making the whole deal worth US$3.4 billion.

The acquisition follows the completion of a payment of US$467 million which is the 100% of the outstanding shares of Celtel International B.V.

CEO of MTC Group, Dr Saad Al Barrak, said that the payment was meant to finalize a binding agreement entered into with the shareholders of Celtel in April 2005 to acquire the remaining 15% of the outstanding shares in Celtel within two years.

MTC described the completion payment as "a record transaction between the Middle East and Africa," adding that the acquisition of Celtel, a leading cellular operator in sub-Saharan Africa, triggered the appetite of other regional and international cellular operators for sub-Saharan markets where mobile telecom penetration is still relatively below 15% of the population.

Al Barrak also said his firm's acquisition of Celtel facilitated a major achievement of its vision to become a global cellular operator, stressing that it opened up many promising markets and secured leadership for MTC in sub-Saharan telecom markets.

"MTC has built on Celtel's expertise in sub-Saharan Africa markets to continue its expansion plan in emerging African markets, by acquiring what is now Celtel Madagascar in December 2005, increasing ownership to 100% of Sudan's Mobitel, in addition to purchasing 65% of Nigeria's third operator (now 'Celtel Nigeria') in May 2006. We now have a footprint of 450 million potential customers in Africa," he said.

He also pointed out that MTC has managed to quadruple Celtel's customer base in two years, increasing it from 5 million customers to 20 million in 14 sub-Saharan countries, including Burkina Faso, Chad, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

"As a leading mobile and data services operator in six Middle Eastern and 14 sub-Saharan African countries with 13,000 employees, we provide a comprehensive range of mobile voice and data services to over 29.7 million active individual and business customers," Al Barak said.

MTC also operates in Kuwait and Bahrain as MTC-Vodafone; in Jordan as Fastlink; in Iraq as MTC-Atheer; in Lebanon as MTC-Touch; in Sudan as Mobitel; and in 14 sub-Saharan countries in Africa as Celtel.

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