Etisalat seeks Omantel stake

The UAE's Etisalat is considering making a bid for a stake in Omantel, after Muscat announced plans to sell shares in the company.

'We would like to see the detail of that auction,' says Jamal al-Jarwan, chief executive of Etisalat International Investments. 'It is something that we would like to find out more about.'

Oman's government will sell part of its 70 per cent controlling stake in the company, which is the country's largest mobile phone operator and the monopoly fixed-line operator.

However, the government will need to provide more details about the sale if it is to attract bids and avoid some of the pitfalls of other phone privatisations in the region. Algeria and Iran, the other governments in the region that have announced plans to sell stakes in their state-run telecoms operators, have been criticised for

allowing bureaucracy to delay the privatisations. 'Very little information has been disclosed so far,'

says Al-Jarwan.

A ministerial committee led by the minister of national economy, Ahmed bin Adbulnabi Macki, is looking at what the government can do with its stake in Omantel. Up to 19 per cent of the company could be sold immediately.

Macki has prepared the company for a partial sale by reducing the proportion of its revenues that are taken by the government with immediate effect.

The government's decision is expected to increase Omantel's 2007 revenues by RO 14.3 million ($37.2 million).

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