Qatar's Qtel increases share in Iraq's Asiacell
BAGHDAD - Qatar Telecom says it has increased its share in the Iraqi phone service provider Asiacell from 53.9 percent to 64.06 percent after a successful public offering for a quarter of the Iraqi company's shares.
Qtel chairman Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani said on Monday that Asiacell is "an outstanding business and has seen excellent performance" year after year.
Asiacell raised nearly $1.3 billion on Baghdad's small stock exchange Sunday in one of the region's biggest share offers in years. The sale more than doubled the market capitalization of the low-volume stock market from $4.7 billion to $9.65 billion.
Qtel is majority-owned by the Qatari government. It has more than 83 million customers in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.
Asiacell has nearly 10 million subscribers in Iraq.
