Oman Telecommunications Co (Omantel) expects to conclude a deal to buy 65 percent of Pakistan's Worldcall by the end of the month, its chief executive said on Sunday. The deal would be worth 9.43 billion Pakistan rupees ($156 million) at the stock's closing price of 19.3 rupees on Friday.
"It is a 65 percent stake," Mohammed al-Wohaibi told Reuters by telephone. Omantel had initially expected to conclude the purchase of a majority stake in the Pakistan-based wireless local loop operator in June, without saying the size of the stake it was seeking or how much it would pay. "We expect to conclude the deal before the end of the month. There were procedural delays," Wohaibi said.
Omantel, the country's second-largest firm by market value, is bracing for the end of its fixed-line monopoly this year, two years after the government opened the mobile business to competition.
Shares of the state-controlled company, which reported a 13 percent rise in second-quarter profit on Sunday, have risen more than 3 percent this month.
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