Essar Tele to buy majority in Dhabi’s African telecom ops
The Ruia family owned Essar Teleholdings has sealed a deal with the Dhabi Group to buy a controlling stake in the UAE firm’s African telecom assets for an undisclosed amount, bolstering its presence in one of the world’s few remaining telecom hotspots. “Essar had reached a deal with UAE’s Abu Dhabi to buy a controlling stake in Warid Telecom’s (the vehicle for the Dhabi Group’s telecom operations) operations in Uganda and Congo and the deal will be announced in the next couple of days,” an executive with direct knowledge of the transaction told ET.
The executive did not reveal the value of the transaction or the extent of the stake set to change hands. A spokesman for Essar Group, which already runs a fledgling mobile telecom business in Kenya, declined to comment. The Dhabi Group was not immediately available for comment.
Media reports earlier this year had pegged Warid Telecom’s African assets at around $350 million, although this could not be independently verified by ET.
