Foreign funds eye Meditel stake: CDG head

By Lamine Ghanmi

RABAT (Reuters) - Foreign investment funds and telecommunications firms, mainly from the Middle East, have expressed interests to buy a stake in Morocco's telecoms company Meditel, said the chief of Morocco's biggest state fund which co-owns the telecoms operator.

"We are open to proposals by foreign investors and we are keeping the door open for them," Anas Alami, Chief Executive Officer of the CDG fund, added on Tuesday.

CDG and Morocco's private group FinanceCom equally own Morocco's no.2 telecoms firm Meditel after they bought stakes held by Portugal Telecom and Spain's Telefonica for $1.15 billion.

The two European telecoms operators had owned 32.2 percent stakes each before they sold off in September to focus on growing their operations in other countries, mainly in South America.

"We are receiving much demand and queries from foreign investment funds and telecoms operators, especially from the Middle East region, about Meditel," Alami told Reuters in an interview.

Asked whether they would reach a deal soon, he said:"We are not in a pro-active process for that now. We are listening for now to proposals and suggestions by interested investors."

"We are focusing now on forging a strategy for Meditel to identify all its potential of growth and improve further its margins," he added.

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