World Call to buy back Omantel stake in $47mln deal

KARACHI: World Call Services (Pvt) Limited on Tuesday expressed its intention to buy back the majority stakes in the World Call Telecom from Oman-based company in a deal worth approximately $47 million.

Pakistan-based World Call Services intends to acquire 488.839 million of ordinary voting shares from Omantel Telecommunications Company, said a notice issued to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). 

The shares represent 56.8 percent of the total ordinary shares of 860.571 million of Rs10 each.  On Tuesday, WorldCall Telecom increased a quarter of its value to close at Rs1.88 on the benchmark 100-share Index of the PSX, while a total of 27 million of its shares were traded.

The notice by the offer’s lead manager, Arif Habib Limited said Ferret Consulting, based in Ajman, will also buy 100 percent of convertible preference shares (350,000) of the World Call Telecom from the seller at a price of $100 each. 

Last month, an offer from a Pakistani investor to buy shares of World Call Telecom didn’t come to fruition as due diligence failed to yield results.  The payphone operator provides long distance international and wireless and cable broadband services across Pakistan. 

In 2008, Omantel, the Oman’s largest telecom operator, paid $193 million for a controlling stake in World Call Telecom. World Call Telecom posted a net loss of Rs2.914 billion for the nine months ended Sept. 2015.

Reuters adds: Oman Telecommunications said it had received another non-binding offer for its shares in Pakistan's WorldCall Telecom Ltd. It gave no details of the identity of the potential acquirer, but said in a filing to Oman's bourse that the offer was subject to further studies.

Last month, Omantel said it had ended discussions with a Pakistan investor about purchasing its 56.8 percent stake in the diversified telecommunications operator after a period of due diligence did not yield a favourable deal.