South Korea’s KT is the latest high-profile name to express an interest in buying a majority stake in Morocco’s Maroc Telecom, the country’s largest mobile operator.

Following press speculation last week, KT issued a statement to South Korea’s stock exchange, without name-checking Maroc Telecom specifically. “We are considering taking a stake in a Moroccan telecom operator, but nothing has been decided yet,” KT said.

Vivendi, which also owns French number-two operator SFR, is looking to sell its 53 per cent stake in the Moroccan market leader as part of a strategic review – and is reportedly looking to raise as much as €5 billion (US$6.62 billion) from a sale.

According to earlier reports, other operator groups thought to be interested in acquiring the stake include Qtel, Etisalat, Saudi Telecom and MTN.

It is understood that Vivendi wants to sign a deal before the end of Q1 2013, although any sale would need the approval of the Kingdom of Morocco which owns a separate 30 per cent stake in the cellco.

Vivendi first acquired a stake in Maroc Telecom in 2001 and the North African company is now its second-biggest division. As well as Morocco, Maroc Telecom also operates in Burkina Faso, Gabon, Mali and Mauritania.

South African holding company Shanduka Group has acquired a stake in MTN Group’s Nigeria business, its largest investment so far in a push to expand across Africa.

Shanduka Group bought an unspecified minority stake in MTN Nigeria for US$335 million to become the third largest shareholder in the cellco, the country’s largest mobile operator with an estimated market share of 48 per cent. Shanduka made the purchase of its stake from an undisclosed private-equity firm.

MTN Nigeria is 78.8 per cent owned by MTN Group, and its second largest shareholder is a group of Nigerian partners.

Corporate governance issues have since been raised over the deal given that MTN Group non-executive chairman, Cyril Ramaphosa, is also the founder and chairman of Shanduka Group. To further exacerbate matters, MTN Group CEO, Sifiso Dabengwa is reportedly in a personal relationship with Shanduka Group CEO Phuti Mahanyele.

Zain Group has paid SAR867.8 million (US$231.4 million) to Motorola on behalf of its Zain Saudi unit to cover costs related to a contract entered by the operating cellco with the US firm.

Zain said it made the payment on December 12 to alleviate the financial burden from its Saudi unit and to support the company’s operations.

Zain Saudi has not made a quarterly net profit since launching operations in 2008 and extended the maturity of a SAR9 billion Islamic loan for another 21 days last month.

According to the statement, the amount paid covers services that Motorola provided the Zain Saudi in 2009 and agreed to pay at a later stage.

Ericsson today announced that it will continue to work together with STMicroelectronics to find a suitable strategic solution for the two companies’ JV ST-Ericsson. STMicroelectronics has today announced its intention to exit as a shareholder in ST-Ericsson.

ST-Ericsson announced its strategic plan in April 2012 and is in the middle of executing on company transformation aiming at lowering its break-even point and introducing new technologies. Ericsson continues to believe that the modem technology, which it originally contributed to the JV, has a strategic value for the wireless industry. For Ericsson, a key priority in this process is a successful market introduction of the new LTE modems that it is certain will be very competitive and needed in the market.

During the process Ericsson will not speculate on the possible outcomes, timelines, and future ownership structures of ST-Ericsson.

Telenor has pledged to abide by a tight financial plan at its slimmed down Indian unit, setting a top funding limit of INR155 billion (US$2.85 billion) and aiming for operating breakeven by the end of 2014.

It is also targeting at least a 25 per cent equity return on new money invested in the country.

The Norwegian telco set out its Indian “strategic direction and financial objectives” after recently acquiring new licences in the country after its earlier permits were cancelled.

“The decision by India’s Supreme Court in February to revoke all our licenses took the entire industry by surprise and we were faced with an intense period of uncertainty for the next 10 months,” admitted CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas.

Telenor re-acquired spectrum in what it said were its six best-performing circles – it originally had licences in 13 circles.

“The Indian operations already enjoy decent market positions in terms of subscriber and revenue market share in all six circles and [we] plan to further improve this in the coming years by taking a number 2-3 position in the clusters where we are present,” the firm said in a statement.

It aims to become the “best in mass market distribution, best in servicing basic [and] best in low cost operations.”

The operator announced last month that Uttar Pradesh East became its first circle to achieve breakeven, three years after launch. The company expects its remaining circles to begin achieving the breakeven targets in the months to come – Gujarat and Maharashtra are expected to breakeven in early 2013.

It also has licences in Uttar Pradesh West, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.

According to Telenor, these six circles are home to more than 600 million people, giving it the potential to reach every second person in India. Mobile penetration across the footprint is estimated at just 40 per cent.