Etisalat to bid for Morocco Meditel stake

By John Irish and Steve Clarke

SWEIMEH, Jordan (Reuters) - Emirates Telecommunications Corp (ETEL.AD) will bid for a stake in Morocco's Meditel as it looks to expand in the Middle East and Africa where prices are low, its chairman said on Friday.

Emirates Telecom (Etisalat) will also continue to pursue expansion into Iran after it was stripped of a telecom license last week, Mohammed Hassan Omran told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea in Jordan.

"We are looking for opportunities in the Middle East and Africa, especially at this time there are some good assets," Omran told Reuters Television. "Assets are becoming cheap ... we see them becoming more cheap in coming months."

Etisalat was one contender for a stake in Meditel, Morocco's second-largest telecoms company, Omran said.

Portugal Telecom (PTC.LS) has appointed Morgan Stanley to sell its 32 percent stake in Meditel, sources said earlier in May.

"We are expecting (to get) Morocco ... We are participating in the bid for Morocco ... Meditel and we are working hard for Syria and Lebanon," Omran said, without giving further details.

The telecom firm is facing stiffer competition in its home market of the United Arab Emirates, where some analysts predict that a wave of job cuts could lead to a population decline, which would weigh on the profits of Etisalat and rival du DU.DU.

But it would not seek to expand into Europe where "valuations are still on the high end and the market is saturated," Omran said. "What we see in the Middle East is more stability."

BIG MARKETS

When asked if Etisalat was likely to be able to match the 4 percent rise in profit it achieved in the first quarter, Omran said: "We are working hard to maintain that and even get it better."

He said the UAE market was becoming more difficult because expatriates were leaving, but Etisalat expected growth in Saudi Arabia, where its affiliate Etihad Etisalat 7020.SE was doing "better than expected."

Etisalat Egypt, the third mobile phone operator to enter the Egyptian market, was also performing "better than competitors," Omran said.

Saudi Arabia is the most-populous Gulf Arab country and Egypt has the largest population in the Arab world.

The chairman said the company was not giving up on the Iranian market, after it lost the third mobile telephone license there.

Iran took the license away from Etisalat and its consortium partners earlier in the month, saying it "had not fulfilled its obligations.