(MENAFN) The UAE-based Etisalat agreed to sell its West African business to Maroc Telecom for USD650 million in a bid to tap its expertise in that region, The Peninsula Qatar reported. Etisalat announced it is selling Atlantique Telecom, its wholly owned West African subsidiary that has mobile operations in areas like Central African Republic, Ivory Coast and Togo, plus its Benin unit and separate regional information technology. The deal will allow Etisalat, which is set to buy a majority stake in the Moroccan firm, to offload insignificant assets that have added little to its bottom line to Maroc Telecom, which posted an increase of 9.5 percent in revenue last year. "Maroc Telecom has done pretty well with its own operations in sub-Saharan Africa, so Etisalat's thinking seem to be that it should take advantage of Maroc Telecom's demonstrable expertise in that region," said principal analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media in Dubai.