Qtel, Qatar’s incumbent operator, is mulling plans to float stakes in its subsidiaries in Iraq and Tunisia over the next two years. Qtel owns Asiacell, Iraq’s second-largest operator, and recently took 100 percent ownership of Tunisiana, Tunisia’s largest. “We are beginning to think now about doing an IPO in Baghdad,” Qtel’s chief strategy officer Jeremy Sell said at a presentation in Doha today, reports Bloomberg. “We are going to start now. We are going to start planning for an IPO that is two years away.” He added that the IPO in Tunisia was likely to happen sooner, probably next summer. Qtel and Princesse Holding, a Tunisian investment fund, paid US$1.2 billion for Orascom Telecom’s 50 percent stake in Tunisiana last month, which means the operator is now controlled by Qtel’s local majority-owned Wataniya Telecom unit.

Qtel has been expanding rapidly in recent years as part of a plan to become a top 20 global operator by 2020. As well as Qatar, Iraq and Tunisia, the firm also has stakes in operators in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Oman, Algeria, Palestine, Singapore, Cambodia and Laos. According to Bloomberg, Qtel is also one six companies that recently submitted bids for a telecoms license in Syria. Its international expansion plans are linked in part to increased competition in its home market of Qatar following the launch of Vodafone Qatar last year.