Ooredoo Tunisia

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Orascom Telecom Tunisie (OTT), a joint-stock company, won the GSM license to become the first private mobile operator in Tunisia in March 2002 after presenting the highest offer of US$454 million to the government. The company paid US$227 million, the first installment of the license fee, on May 12, 2002, and received the 15-year license which granted the operator four years of exclusivity operations in the Tunisian market, along with state-owned Tunisia Telecom. The network building contracts went to Siemens and Alcatel. In October 2002, Kuwait's National Mobile Telecommunications Company (Wataniya Telecom) acquired 50% of OTT for US$113.5 million, of which US$90 million was an immediate cash payment. In the acquisition, Wataniya Telecom agreed with Orascom to jointly develop the operator OTT. This left Orascom with the majority (35%) of the other half of OTT, along with Tunisian private conglomerate Carthage Consortium (15%). Tunisiana launched its services in December of 2002, with US$50 million invested in the first phase of the network. In May 2005, Orascom increased its equity stakes in Tunisiana to 50%. In September of 2004, OTT completed US$310 million in debt financing and US$23 million in new equity to help finance the US$247 million second payment (US$227 in principal plus US$20 million in interest for the time between the first payment and this final one) that OTT was due to make to the Tunisian government for its licensing fee. The remainder of the funds were to be used to help expand OTT’s network. The debt was to be repaid over seven years and consisted of an export credit facility of US$130 million in two tranches covered by Coface and Euler-Hermes respectively, a structured finance facility of US$160 million, and a short term loan of US$20 million. DEG - Deutsche Investitions und Entwickelungsgessellschaft mbH, the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), the OPEC Fund, and Proparco contributed US$50 million in dedicated tranches within the structured finance facility; the remaining US$130 million was placed with a syndicate of international banks. Arab Banking Corporation BSC, Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG, KfW IPEX Bank and Standard Bank London Ltd were joint lead arrangers for the debt financing. By end 2004, Tunisiana had a 29% market share or about one million subscribers and competed with government-owned Tunisie Telecom. In November 2010, Quatar Telecom bought Orsacom shares for US$1.2 billion and became the unique shareholder. Tunisiana was rebranded Ooredoo from early 2014. Capex 2012: Wireless Intelligence