GSM operator, Zain Nigeria, may soon face another re-branding challenge in the wake of serious talks between its parent company, Kuwaiti Zain Group and French telecom firm, Vivendi, to buy the African operations of the Zain Group.
SFR is a 56 percent subsidiary of Vivendi, the second-largest telecommunications operator in France.
In 2008, SFR finalised its merger with Neuf Cegetel, thus creating the second-ranking global operator in France. With 19.7 million mobile customers and 3.9 million high-speed Internet customers, the new SFR – created from the merger between SFR and Neuf Cegetel – is the leading alternative mobile and fixed-line operator in Europe, offering solutions tailored to the needs of individuals, companies and operators.
This new arrangement will be a driving force in terms of innovation, development of new services, convergent solutions and deployment of very-high-speed fixed-line (fibre-optic) and mobile (3G+) networks to better serve consumers.Â
As the owner of its network infrastructure and with the benefit of expertise in the Internet, it has all the necessary resources to develop its leadership in terms of innovation and quality of service.
Maroc Telecom is a 53 percent subsidiary of Vivendi, with operations covering mobile, fixed-line and Internet access services. Listed on the Casablanca and Paris stock exchanges, Maroc Telecom also holds 51 percent of the historical operators of Mauritania (Mauritel), Burkina Faso (Onatel) and Gabon (Gabon Telecom)
The Group is firmly committed to international development and is currently established in six countries.
Groupe Canal+, a 100 percent Vivendi subsidiary, the largest French premium and theme channels producer and paid TV offerings distributor, with 10.6 million subscribers; it is also a major player in France and Europe in film production and distribution.
Zain Nigeria, which had in the past seven years being owned by different operators and had changed names severally, transformed from Econet, Vodacom, V-mobile, Celtel to Zain. Celtel was founded by Sudanese-born Mo Ibrahim in 1998 and sold to Kuwait’s MTC (now Zain) in April 2005 for $3.4 billion.
Zain is waiting for reply from the French company, this week, and if the deal isn’t settled it will study bids made by other companies.
No reason was given for why Zain is looking to sell the African division.
The Kuwait based network operates in 16 African countries and seven in the Middle East. Its African operations comprise Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Sierra-Leone, Malawi, Chad, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Madagascar, Kenya, Uganda, Niger, and Gabon, among others.
If the ongoing talks to sell Zain’s Africa operations succeed, indications are that the brand name will change.
This may have particularly far reaching effects for the network in its Nigeria operations as it has re-branded too many times.
Source: businessdayonline.com
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