Qtel Considers Plans for IPOs of Iraq, Tunisia Units

Qatar Telecom QSC, the country’s largest company by revenue, is mulling plans to sell shares to the public in its Iraqi unit in two years and in its Tunisian unit in 2011, according to its chief strategy officer.

“We are beginning to think now about doing an IPO in Baghdad,” Jeremy Sell said at a presentation in the Qatari capital Doha today. “We are going to start now. We are going to start planning for an IPO that is two years away.”

The initial public offering in Tunisia would probably happen next summer, he said.

Qatar Telecom, called Qtel, owns shares in subsidiaries from Algeria to the Philippines including Iraq’s Asiacell and Tunisia’s Tunisiana. The company has sought to expand overseas because of increased competition in its home market following the entry of Vodafone Qatar last year.

Last month, Qtel and Princesse Holding of Tunisia agreed to buy Orascom Telecom Holding’s 50 percent stake in Tunisiana for $1.2 billion. Qtel is one of six companies that submitted bids for a telecommunications license in Syria, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported Nov. 15.

Qtel shares, up 24 percent this year, fell 1.3 percent today to 180.1 riyals on the Qatar Exchange.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Tuttle in Doha at rtuttle@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Inal Ersan at iersan@bloomberg.net