Qtel Group has closed on its offer to increase its stake in Wataniya Telecom Kuwait, and has secured ownership of 92.1 per cent of the mobile operator.

Following the expiry of Qtel’s offer to acquire the 47.5 per cent of shares it does not own in Wataniya Telecom on October 4, Qtel has received acceptances from shareholders for 39.61 per cent of the total shares in issue. Qtel originally made the offer to all other shareholders of Wataniya Telecom on September 4.

"We respect the decision of those Wataniya Telecom shareholders who decided not to accept the offer and look forward to their continuing support as we enter into a new period of investment across all Wataniya Telecom Kuwait’s main markets,” commented Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani, chairman of Qtel Group. “We are also grateful for the Algerian Authorities understanding of our position, taking into consideration that no change takes place in the Wataniya Telecom Algeria management control in line with Algerian law, and granting us the opportunity to fulfil this deal which will stimulate our investments, particularly in the promising and thriving Algerian market," he added.

In 2007, Qtel paid US$3.8 billion for an initial 51 per cent stake in Wataniya Telecom. In 2011, Wataniya Telecom posted revenue of US$2.62 billion and net profit of US$1.3 billion.

Wataniya Telecom has complete ownership of Wataniya Kuwait, in addition to stakes in Wataniya-Maldives (100%), Wataniya-Palestine (48.5%), Nedjma in Algeria (71%), PTC-Bravo in Saudi Arabia (100%), and Tunisiana in Tunisia (75%).

Airtel Africa has announced the appointments of Louis Lubala and Antoine Pamboro as the new managing directors of its operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Gabon respectively.

The new development sees the two Airtel top executives, take leadership roles in two African nations with diverse potential in the telecommunications sector. Gabon has one of the highest teledensity statistics at over a 100 per cent whilst DRC, the second largest country in Africa by area, has an approximated 25 per cent penetration.

Pambaro holds a Master’s degree in Telecommunications Civil Engineering from the Superior National School of Telecommunications, France and a Bachelor’s degree in Maths & Physics from the University of Reims, France. A career engineer, he headed operations in Airtel DRC and brings over 28 years of deep telecommunications experience in both the public and private sectors. He joined the company in 2000 from MTN having had a successful career spanning several senior leadership roles.

Before his appointment as the MD for DRC, Lubala headed Airtel operations in Gabon. He brings over 25 years’ experience from both the telecommunication and the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors having worked with multinational companies such as Electric Liberty – South Africa, Multi-Choice Africa, World Space – Southern Africa, Quantum International, Unilever Cote d’Ivoire, Lever Brothers South Africa and Unilever DRC.

A court in Nigeria has dismissed an application by Bharti Airtel to set aside an award made by an international commercial arbitration tribunal in favour of Econet Wireless.

Econet Wireless says that it is now going to seek compensation in excess of US$3 billion for damages following the sale of the Nigerian mobile network against its wishes. The size of the actual damages has yet to be assessed by the court.

The basis of Econet’s claim is that its five per cent stake was unfairly cancelled when Zain Group took control, so any decision made since then without it, including the later sale to Bharti Airtel is void.

An international tribunal found multiple breaches of a shareholders’ agreement by both the selling shareholders and Celtel Nigeria, now Bharti Airtel Nigeria, ordering them to pay compensation to Econet.

The ruling said that the purchase of a 65 per cent shareholding in Nigeria’s second largest mobile operator, by Celtel, violated the pre-emption rights of existing shareholder, Econet Wireless. Celtel’s parent company, Zain Group later sold the controlling stake to Bharti Airtel. The international tribunal’s award was handed down in December.

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has sold its IPTV business to Accenture, the latest in a line of divestures designed to concentrate the vendor’s focus on the mobile broadband space.

Accenture is to integrate the business with its own Accenture Video Solution – a software product and a suite of services that enables companies to launch over-the-top TV and services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
In the past year, NSN has sold its WiMAX unit to NewNet Communication Technologies, its Expedience fixed-wireless broadband business to CN Tetragen, its fixed line broadband access unit to Adtran and microwave transport business to DragonWave.

It is also thought to be close to finalising a sale of its business support systems (BSS) division, with Ericsson and Amdocs said to be among the interested acquirers.

Zain Saudi Arabia has secured an agreement to delay the repayment of a US$2.6 billion loan by a further two months while it raises the funds for the repayment.

The company has already delayed repayment from July to the end of September, but has now secured an agreement to delay repayment until the end of November.

The company has already paid back US$750 million of the debt, and recently raised US$1.6 billion in a rights issue from shareholders.

Zain Group owns a 37 per cent stake in the company and failed in an attempt last year to sell its holding to Bahrain’s Batelco.