France Total's Moroccan Unit to Raise $75 mln in IPO

Total Maroc, owned by France's Total, plans to raise between 612 million dirhams and 720 million dirhams ($74.48 million) in an initial public share offer, Moroccan bourse watchdog CDVM said in a statement on Saturday.

Total Maroc commercialises around 1 million tonnes of energy products annually and has more than 270 service stations across the country with an estimated 11 percent market share, or a third of Morocco's oil distribution.

The offering would be the first in Morocco in 2015 and could help revive Casablanca's stock market, which has suffered from the knock-on effects of the euro zone crisis and a lack of foreign investors.

Casablanca's benchmark MASI index has lost 0.35 pct in the last three months. Morocco was downgraded to "frontier market" status by index provider MSCI in 2013, due to a lack of liquidity in the market.

Total Maroc has hired two Moroccan banks - Attijariwafa bank, the local unit of France's Societe Generale (SGE.SG)- for an offering expected from May 11 to May 15 which will involve 15 percent of Total's shares, the regulator's statement said.

CDVM said it had approved the issue. The company will sell 1.34 million shares which it has priced at between 455 and 535 dirhams apiece.

Last year, France's Total sold a 30 percent stake in Total Maroc to the Saudi Zahid Group for an undisclosed sum. Total and Zahid Group are already partners in Saudi Arabian lubricants producer Saudi Total Lubricants Ltd.

($1 = 9.6675 Moroccan dirham)

(Reporting By Aziz El Yaakoubi; editing by Ralph Boulton)