Is Zain Africa worth $12 Billion?
This week, Vivendi (VIVEF.PK), the French media conglomerate, has reportedly put in an offer to acquire Zain’s African mobile operations. Zain acquired the businesses in 2005 via the US$3.4 billion acquisition of Celtel. However, the firm is now reportedly looking at selling the networks, which are valued at as much as US$12 billion. For those who need to know whom are we talking about, Vivendi is the joint-owner (with Vodafone (VOD)) of SFR (France’s second-largest mobile operator); is the company that controls Morocco’s Maroc Telecom; is an international player which has numerous stakes in other African countries such as Mauritania (Mauritel), Burkina Faso (Onatel) and Gabon (Gabon Telecom).
A sale of Zain’s African networks would be a surprising move as the operator has only recently completed rebranding the networks following the Celtel acquisition. There would be some countries that would “suffer” from this sale, such as Zain Nigeria that would have to be rebranded again despite having changed names several times in recent years, from Econet to Vodacom, then V-mobile, then Celtel and finally to Zain.
Related Topics: Africa, countries, telecom, VOD