International law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges has advised Kuwait Projects Company Holding KSC (KIPCO) on its agreement, as lead member of a shareholder consortium, to sell a controlling shareholding in Kuwait based National Mobile Telecommunications Company KSC (Wataniya Telecom) to Qatar Telecom QSC (Qtel). Under the terms of the agreement, KIPCO and the other consortium members will sell an aggregate of 233.6 million shares in Wataniya Telecom, representing 51% of Wataniya Telecom's share capital. The total consideration for the transaction is approximately KD 1.1 billion (£1.9 billion).

The KIPCO Group is one of the biggest diversified holding companies in the Middle East and North Africa, with assets worth more than US$18 billion under management or control. The Group has substantial ownerships interests in a portfolio of 54 companies operating across 17 countries. The company's main business sectors are financial services and media & telecommunications. We were retained by KIPCO on this transaction following our work as issuer's counsel on the proposed IPO of one of its subsidiaries, to whom we were introduced by another client of the firm.

The Weil Gotshal team was led by corporate partners Jeremy Dickens and Ian Hamilton, assisted by Simon Lyell and Simon Burrows. Partner Michael Nicklin provided finance advice.

About Weil, Gotshal & Manges

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an international law firm of over 1,100 lawyers, including approximately 300 partners. Weil, Gotshal is headquartered in New York, with offices in Austin, Boston, Brussels, Budapest, Dallas, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Miami, Munich, Paris, Prague, Providence, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Warsaw, Washington, DC and Wilmington.