18 companies given thumbs up for SOTELMA bidding

According to local press reports, the government of Mali has qualified 18 companies to bid for national operator Societe des Telecommunications du Mali (SOTELMA); the announcement comes following conferences for potential investors in Paris and Bamako in July 2008. Following enthusiastic interest in the operator the government has decided to raise the price for SOTELMA to XOF200 billion (USD457 million), up from XOF80 billion. The report indicates that interested bidders include MTN, Vodafone, Zain, Deutsche Telekom, Tunisie Telecom, Maroc Telecom, Portugal Telecom, Saudi Telecom and Sudatel.