Orange Group first expressed interest in purchasing a 45% stake in Ethio Telecom two years ago
Orange Group has decided to withdraw from a process to acquire a 45% stake in Ethiopia’s state-owned operator Ethio Telecom. The French operator confirmed that, due to existing market conditions, the acquisition would not further the company’s strategy as initially anticipated.
“After analysis, the group believes the conditions do not allow for the rapid deployment of our strategy and the completion of a project that would create value for the company,” stated Orange.
Orange first expressed interest in purchasing a minority stake in Ethio Telecom two years ago. However, Ethiopia postponed the tender process by a year, citing economic conditions. The process, though, was revived in February of this year. Ethiopia’s government has made efforts to open up its market to international players, and in 2021, awarded the first private network license to a consortium made up of Vodafone Group, Vodacom and Safaricom.
According to July 2023 reporting by Bloomberg, UAE-operator e& was also considering a bid for a 45% stake.
Ethio Telecom, which has more than 70 million subscribers, launched a pre-commercial 5G network across six mobile stations in the capital city of Addis Ababa in May 2022. Launched after a temporary 5G spectrum approval by the Ethiopian Communication Authority, the pre-commercial network was supported by equipment from Huawei Technologies and ZTE.
