The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has agreed to sell its 49 per cent stake in Congo China Telecom (CCT) to France Telecom. The French telco was previously reported to be in exclusive talks with ZTE to buy the remaining 51 per cent stake.

“With this transaction the public treasury is reaping US$64 million. There will also be more than US$10 million in the form of taxes and other payments,” Jacques Baikpon, chief of staff at the country’s telecom ministry told Reuters by telephone.

The entire company has been valued at around US$425 million, although it is heavily in debt.

CCT is estimated to have had around one million subscribers at the end of March, representing a market share of around 10 per cent.

On October 1 Vodafone Qatar on announced it had appointed Richard Daly, the former CEO of Vodafone Egypt and Vodafone Partner Markets, as CEO of the Qatari operation.

Former Vodafone Qatar CEO Grahame Maher tragically passed away in November 2010 after suffering a short illness.

Vodafone said in a statement that Daly was already in Qatar and at work.

It added that Daly was “a very experienced CEO with over 30 years’ experience in blue chip companies including 11 years in telecommunications”.

Daly said his priority would be to see that the operator continues to provide excellent network quality across Qatar and bring new services to customers.

Nokia and Siemens are to pump an additional €500 million (US$680 million) each into their challenged Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) joint venture, boosting its capital by €1 billion and laying the grounds for the company to become an independent organisation.

As part of that process, the two companies also announced the appointment of Jesper Ovesen as executive chairman of the board of NSN, effective September 29.

Ovesen, 54, has held a number of senior management positions in leading European companies, including serving most recently as CFO at Danish telecommunications group TDC during the company’s restructuring process and initial public offering.

As executive chairman, Ovesen assumes a full-time role that the company said would come with a special emphasis on overseeing the strategic direction of NSN as it seeks to become a more independent entity.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who has served as non-executive chairman, has elected to step down from his position.

Bharti Airtel (Airtel) announced today it has entered into an agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to expand its 2G (GSM/EDGE) networks and deploy 3G networks in seven African countries. Under the agreement, NSN will manage end-to-end network operations, including planning, designing and implementing the 2G and 3G networks for Airtel.

Manoj Kohli, CEO, (International) and joint managing director, Bharti Airtel, said: “This agreement manifests our commitment to provide world-class, innovative and affordable mobile services to customers in Africa. We believe NSN’s global expertise in managed services and compact energy-efficient network equipment are a perfect fit to our long-term goal to be the leading telecommunications provider in the African continent.

NSN will use its FlexiHybrid microwave radio to address growing data traffic and provide the platform for a cost-effective transition to 3G, and potentially 4G networks in the future. The company will also provide its NetAct network management system for effective network monitoring and management.

In addition, NSN’s end-to-end managed services will enable Airtel to focus on delivering better customer experience and offer more innovative products and services to customers across markets.

Zain Group today issued a statement announcing that both Zain Group and the consortium composed of Batelco and Kingdom Holdings Company, have agreed to end discussions and negotiations relative to the potential sale of Zain Group’s 25 per cent equity stake in Zain Saudi Arabia.

Zain Group stated that acting in the best interest of its shareholders; it looks forward to assisting Zain Saudi Arabia in the development of the latter’s mobile telecommunications business in the kingdom in the future.

This development brings to a complete end the attempt by operators to acquire Zain Group assets. Etisalat’s bid to acquire most of Zain Group’s territories ended in March this year after several months of due diligence.

In describing its decision not to push ahead with the deal, Etisalat said in March that:

“Due to the results of due diligence done by Etisalat’s financial advisers and legal experts, the political turmoil in the region, the absence of a consensus between Zain’s shareholders, and the effect of the law binding offers that is due to be issued in Kuwait…Etisalat conditions that were announced on November 3 are no longer applicable.”