TECOM Investments and Dubai Investment Group, both members of Dubai Holding, last week officially announced the acquisition of a 35 per cent stake in Tunisie Telecom, Tunisia’s state telecom carrier.

The final purchase price was quoted at $2.25 billion.

A signing ceremony held to finalise the acquisition was attended by Montassar Ouaïli, Tunisia’s Minister of Communications Technologies, Ahmad Bin Byat, executive chairman of TECOM Investments and Soud Ba’alawy, CEO of DIG.

Meanwhile, the $2.25 billion syndicated loan issued for Dubai Holding for the purchase of 35 per cent of Tunisie Telecom closed more than 100 per cent oversubscribed. Over 40 banks are in the syndicate, with around 50 per cent of lenders coming from the Middle East and the remainder from Asia and Europe. Emirates Bank and Standard Chartered Bank are the mandated lead arrangers.

In March this year, the TECOM-DIG consortium was named the highest bidder for the Tunisie Telecom stake in a bidding process involving 12 other leaders in the telecom industry. A binding Share Purchase Agreement was signed between the parties on 27 April. The closing of the transaction took place on 17 July.

Tunisie Telecom is the leading telecom operator in Tunisia. With more than 3.7 million mobile and 1.25 million fixed clients. Tunisia Telecom, serves all Tunisians with over 8000 skilled employees and a state of the art network.