MENA Telecom Deal of the Year shortlist announced

March 27, 2013 - PRLog -- Dubai, UAE, March 27 2013 – The final shortlist for the much anticipated Telecom Deal of the Year 2013 for the TMT Finance Middle East and North Africa Awards has been announced, and includes over US$10bn worth of transactions.

Batelco, France Telecom,  Ooredoo (Qtel), Indosat, Mobinil and Asiacell are among the telecom companies featured on the short list which is dominated by M&A transactions, with one IPO and one bond offering. Investment banking advisers that make the list this year include Barclays, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Citi, Credit Suisse, Houlihan Lokey, JPMorgan, Lazard, Morgan Stanley, RBS and Rabee Securities.  

The TMT Finance Middle East and North Africa Awards will be presented on April 23 at the Gala Dinner of the TMT Middle East & North Africa 2013 Conference at Mina A’ Salam, Dubai,  the 7th annual regional gathering for the telecom, finance and advisory community.

The Deal of the Year shortlist for March 2012- March 2013 in alphabetical order is:

Asiacell’s US$1.24bn IPO (Iraq Stock Exchange)

Advised by Rabbee Securities

·       Batelco’s US$1.025bn acquisition of CWC’s Monaco & Islands unit and CMC

Advised by Houlihan Lokey, Citi and BNP Paribas

·       France Telecom’s E3.5bn acquisition of 57% of Mobinil Egypt shares

Advised by Lazard

·       Indosat (Qtel) US$406m sale of towers to Tower Bersama

Barclays advised Tower Bersama; Citi advised Indosat

·       Ooredoo (Qtel) US$1bn bond issue

Arranged by RBS, BoAML, JP Morgan, Citigroup and QNB Capital

·       Ooredoo (Qtel) US$1.8bn acquisition of 39%.5 stake in Wataniya

Barclays Capital and National Bank of Kuwait advised Qtel. Protiviti advised Wataniya

·       Ooredoo (Qtel) US$1.47bn acquisition of 30% stake in Asiacell

Morgan Stanley advised Qtel and Credit Suisse advised MerchantBridge

The shortlists for the other TMT Finance MENA 2013 Awards categories will also be announced in March, including: Telecom CEO of the Year, Telecom Regulator, Mobile Operator, M&A Adviser, Broadband Operator, Growth Story, Financing Bank and Legal Adviser.  

The TMT Finance Awards are nominated by readers of TMT Finance News, the leading source of news for global telecom financing activity (www.tmtfinance.com ). The winners are assessed against specially designed criteria and selected by an expert Judging Panel featuring leading industry experts, advisers, and bankers. For more details go to www.tmtfinance.com/awards .

For more information on the TMT Finance Middle East & North Africa Conference and Awards go to http://www.tmtfinance.com/mena or contact us at enquiries@tmtfinance.com