S Korea’s KT Corp in fray for Vivendi's $6-bn stake in Maroc Telecom

South Korean telecoms company KT Corp has entered the race to buy French mass media company Vivendi's stake in Morocco's Maroc Telecom worth over $6 billion, Reuters yesterday reported, citing two people familiar with the situation.

KT Corp, South Korea's second-largest mobile-phone company, has lined up Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Societe Generale to advise and fund the potential acquisition, the report said.

Qatar's Qtel QTEL.QA and UAE's Emirates Telecommunications Corp have already placed non-binding bids for Vivendi's 53-per cent stake in Maroc Telecom.

Listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange and Euronext Paris, Maroc Telecom is 30-per cent owned by the Moroccan government, and has a market value of about $11.2 billion.

In 2001 the Moroccan government sold 35 per cent of Maroc Telecom to Vivendi for 23 billion dirhams and later raised its stake to 53 per cent.

With 33 million customers at the end of October 2012, Maroc Telecom is the main telecom service provider in Morroco. Its network covers 97 per cent of the Moroccan population. It also has 12.5 million customers in Mali, Gabon, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.