Vodafone Group announced it's existing the Qatar market and selling its 51 percent stake in Vodafone Qatar to its joint venture partner the Qatar Foundation for QAR 1.35 billion (EUR 301 million).
The company will receive QAR 1.25 billion at completion of the sale, which is expected within three months, and QAR 100 million a year later. The price represents a 3 percent discount to the 30-day trading average and gives Vodafone Qatar an enterprise value of QAR 6.50 billion.
The Qatari operator will be able to continue using the Vodafone name under a Vodafone Partner Market agreement with an initial term of five years. It will also repay a USD 223 million loan from Vodafone in November 2019.
The announcement sees both Qatar's mobile networks come under majority state control, although both Vodafone Qatar and Ooredoo have a minority of shares listed on the stock market.
Vodafone Qatar ended 2017 with nearly 1.4 million customers, down from 1.5 million a year earlier. A major network outage earlier in the year led to a fall in revenues in its fiscal first half to September, but the company has made progress in the past year in turning to a profit before amortisation costs and reducing debt.
