Gide Loyrette Nouel and Norton Rose are among a raft of law firms to have picked up roles on France Telecom-Orange's acquisition of Congo China Telecom (CCT).

The deal saw France Telecom acquire Chinese telecoms equipment manufacturer ZTE Corporation's 51% stake in CCT for $10m (£6.3m) and the Democratic Republic of Congo Government's 49% share 
for $7m (£4.4m).

Gide acted for France Telecom on the deal, with senior Paris lawyer Renaud Rossa leading on all M&A aspects alongside Paris/China M&A partner David Boitout. The team also included Paris media, IT and telecoms partner Remy Fekete and London finance partner Margaret Boswell.

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom acted as legal counsel for ZTE, which will continue to provide network equipment and services to CCT, with Paris M&A partner Pierre Servan-Schreiber at the helm. Meanwhile, Norton Rose Paris corporate partner Poupak Bahamin advised the Democratic Republic of Congo.

White & Case Beijing banking, capital markets and restructuring partner Baldwin Cheng acted for China Development Bank, which is providing financing support for the deal, which also sees CCT pay $71m (£44m) to the local Government for improved licence terms.

Fekete commented: "It was a very large deal in terms of its complexity. We had to ensure that our bases were covered in terms of M&A, the financing and privatisation process and the regulatory aspects, not to mention dealing with English law, Chinese and Hong Kong law, telecom regulations and Congolese law."

With a population of more than 70 million, Congo is the fourth most populated African country but has a mobile penetration rate of only 17%, offering significant growth  opportunities for 
France Telecom.