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Egypt Telecom News
Egypt may sell ‘sizable’ Telecom Egypt stake
within two years (From Bloomberg, March 4, 2010)
(Bloomberg) - Egypt
may sell a “sizable” stake in fixed-line telephone monopoly Telecom Egypt
within the next two years, Communications Minister Tarek
Kamel said in an interview.
“Definitely there are plans in the future to
offer more shares,” Kamel said in a Bloomberg
Television interview in Singapore
today. “Within the timeframe of two years’ time there could be an
additional stake floated on the Cairo
stock exchange. It would be definitely a sizable stake,” he said, without
specifying how much might be sold.
Egypt’s government raised 4.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($820
million) in the December 2005 initial public offering of 20 percent of
Telecom Egypt.
The company’s market capitalization of $6.1 billion now compares with the
valuation of about $4.6 billion at the time of the IPO.
Kamel is in Singapore to attract investment.
Indian companies including Satyam Computer
Services Ltd. and Infosys Technologies Ltd. have
successfully invested in Egypt
in the past five years, he said. The companies have then used Egypt as a
base to export services to neighboring countries, Kamel
said.
The minister also said the government may award a
fourth wireless license “in the coming few years.” The main aim will be to
focus on “value-added services as well as new applications,” Kamel said.
“In 2011 we would definitely be in a position to
make the necessary announcements” regarding a fourth license, he said.
The current licenses are held by Vodafone Egypt, a
venture between Telecom Egypt and Vodafone Group Plc; The Egyptian Co. for
Mobile Services, the venture between Orascom
Telecom Holding SAE and France Telecom SA known as Mobinil;
and Etisalat Egypt, a unit of Emirates
Telecommunications Corp.
Egypt's Mobinil
says on track for revenue target (March 22, 2009)
CAIRO (Reuters) - Mobinil, Egypt's largest mobile operator
by subscribers, said on Sunday it was on track to meet a 10 percent target
for revenue growth and that a dispute between shareholders should be
resolved "soon."
"The first two months of the year we can't
say it has been business as usual, but we should be able to achieve 10
percent," Hassan Kabbani,
the company's chief executive, told Reuters in an interview.
He also said a dispute between Mobinil shareholders France Telecom and Orascom Telecom should be resolved "soon" and
the settlement would not impact Mobinil's
operations.
Egypt's Mobinil
says Q3 net income up 15 pct (November 2, 2008)
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Mobinil
EMOB.CA said on Sunday its third quarter net income rose by 15 percent to
541 million Egyptian pounds ($97 million).
That beat the expectations of investment bank
EFG-Hermes, which forecast a drop to 388 million pounds.
The company said it would take legal action after
Egypt's
telecoms regulator ruled on a dispute in favor of state-owned landline
monopoly Telecom Egypt ETEL.CA by changing interconnect prices between
fixed and mobile networks.
A spokesman for Mobinil
refused to give further details.
The firm, which boasts the largest number of
mobile subscribers in Egypt,
has a history of wrangling with the National Telecoms Regulatory Authority
(NTRA).
In April, the firm said it was delaying payment
of a 750 million pound installment on a 3G license fee because the NTRA was
late in handing over the frequency band for testing.
Mobinil, whose main shareholders are France Telecom and Orascom Telecom ORTE.CA, competes in a three-way race
for market share in Egypt
with Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat Egypt.
The company said its earnings before interest,
taxation, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the third quarter rose
by 29 percent to 1.273 billion pounds.
Subscribers reached 18.91 million by the end of
the quarter, up 38 percent from a year earlier. ($1 = 5.5733 Egyptian pounds)
S&P: Orascom
Telecom outlook cut to negative after downgrade of Pakistani unit (October 8, 2008)
MUMBAI (Thomson Financial) - Standard &
Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook on Egypt-based wireless
telecommunications operator Orascom Telecom
Holdings S.A.E. to negative from stable, after the downgrade of wholly
owned unit Pakistan Mobile Communications Ltd. (Mobilink).
Orascom's ratings were affirmed.
"The outlook revision reflects concerns that
a weakening economic environment in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan may
result in lower-than-originally expected returns from the Pakistani market
for Orascom Telecom," said S&P's credit analyst Michael O'Brien.
He noted that Mobilink
is Orascom's second largest operation.
Egypt's Orascom
Telecom sets new share buyback (August 18, 2008)
CAIRO (Reuters) - Mobile operator Orascom
Telecom said on Monday it would buy back up to 8.9 million GDRs or 44.9 million ordinary shares over the next 12
months.
The shares, with a current market value of about 2.4
billion Egyptian pounds , represent 4.4 percent of
the company's total capital, according to stock exchange data.
It will be the company's third buyback program
this year. In the previous two it bought from the market and then cancelled
128.7 million shares in a capital reduction operation.
At the time of the earlier buybacks, the company
said it had a large cash surplus and could not find attractive alternative
investments.
In a statement on Monday, the company said it
intended to keep assessing opportunities to buy its own shares.
Shares in the company were down 1.6 percent at
53.93 pounds at 0940 GMT on Monday, compared with a decline of 1.2 percent
in the benchmark CASE 30 index.
Orange brings iPhone
to Jordan and Egypt
(From
itp.net, May 17, 2008)
- The Middle East iPhone
build up continues, with the news that French telecom operator Orange will sell the device in Jordan and Egypt.
In a statement released on Friday, Orange announced that
it will be selling iPhone in these two countries
"later this year". Orange will
also sell iPhone in its African markets, which
include Kenya, Niger, Senegal
and Ivory Coast.
UK operator Vodafone has already announced that it
is planning to introduce iPhone in Egypt.
Apple has stuck to exclusive deals for each country where it introduced the
iPhone originally, but it has now signed deals
with multiple operators for several markets.
The new non-exclusive iPhone
deals are expected to relate to sales of a new anticipated 3G iPhone model. The ‘current' 2G model is no longer
available in the US and
the UK.
Telecom Egypt says Q1 net profit drops
4.8 pct (May
15, 2008)
CAIRO (Reuters) - Telecom Egypt posted a net profit of
557 million Egyptian pounds ($104 million) on Thursday for the first
quarter of 2008, 4.8 percent lower than in the same period last year.
The company, which has a monopoly on fixed-line
phone service in Egypt,
said total fixed-line subscribers reached 11.3
million, up 3 percent on the same period of 2007.
Orascom Telecom offers to buy back 10.3pc
of shares (From
the Oman
Daily Observer, April 18, 2008)
CAIRO - Egypt-based mobile phone operator Orascom Telecom (OT) Orascom
Telecom (OT) said yesterday it was offering to buy back 10.3 per cent of
its own shares at 83 Egyptian pounds ($15.31) a share. The offer also
applies to the company's London-based GDRs, for
which the price is equivalent to $76.50 at the current exchange rate, it
said. Each GDR is equivalent to five ordinary shares.
OTOT shares jumped 8.7 per cent to a high of 81.4
pounds a share in early trading on the Egyptian stock exchange. They then
slipped back to about 79.50 pounds, up 6.2 per cent. OTOT said it was
offering the buyback because it had a large cash surplus and could not find
attractive alternative investments. "The company feels that buying its
own shares is the best way to use such amounts," it added.
The offer is for up to 106 million shares, giving
the buyback transactions a potential cumulative value of 8.798 billion
Egyptian pounds. The offer will expire on May 14 at 5 pm New York time (2100 GMT) but could be
extended, the company said. Amr el Alfy, head of research at CIBC brokerage, said he
thought the stock was undervalued, so a buyback was timely. CIBC gives the
stock a fair value of 94 pounds a share before the buyback, excluding the
company's expansion into North
Korea. Taking North Korea operations into
account, the price should be up to 100 pounds a share, Alfy
added.
France Telecom, five others eye Egypt
license (March
18, 2008)
CAIRO
(Reuters) - France Telecom has expressed interest in buying Egypt's second
fixed-line license, joining five Arab companies that are also interested,
Egypt's telecom regulator said on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the National Telecom Regulatory
Authority said France Telecom had bought a booklet of conditions for the
sale of the telecom license on Monday.
The other five companies that have expressed
interest are Orascom Telecom , Egypt's Alkan, Egypt's Giza
Systems, Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat , and Saudi's Atheeb group, the NTRA spokesman said.
The telecom regulator has said it would auction
the license on June 19, bringing Egypt
one step closer to ending the monopoly of state-run Telecom Egypt , currently the country's sole fixed-line operator.
Etisalat led a group of investors that paid $2.9 billion
to become Egypt's
third mobile operator in 2006, with the right to offer higher-bandwidth 3G
technology in the most populous Arab country.
Orascom Telecom refinances $2.5 billion
debt facility (From
Cellular News, March 3, 2008)
- Eygpt based, Orascom Telecom has agreed to refinance a tranch of its debt with a new US$2.5 billion five-year
debt facility with 12 Egyptian and international banks. The company said
that the Facility will be used to refinance the outstanding amounts under
the company’s existing US$ 2.5bn jumbo facilities and for general corporate
purposes.
Aldo Mareuse, Group
Chief Financial Officer of Orascom Telecom,
commented "The new facility will provide long term financing that will
allow the Company to evaluate investment opportunities on a disciplined
basis, or continue to return capital to its shareholder's in light of favourable relative market valuations. The committed
facility provides greater financial flexibility for the continued
development of our fast growing businesses and creates a simpler and more
transparent capital structure".
The 12 banks that have committed to underwrite
the facility are Banque Misr,
Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Calyon, HSBC Bank
Egypt, ING Bank N.V., JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Mashreqbank psc, National Bank of Egypt, Standard Bank PLC,
Standard Chartered Bank and WestLB AG.
Last December, Standard & Poor's Rating
Services affirmed its long-term 'B+' corporate credit ratings on Orascom Telecom and related finance subsidiary Orascom Telecom Finance. The outlook was stable.
The affirmation followed the announcements of Orascom's sale of 100% of Iraq-based subsidiary Iraqna Company for Mobile Services (Iraqna)
for $1.2 billion and its 14.2% remaining stake in Hutchison Telecommunications
International, which over time will boost Orascom's
liquidity, following completion and receipt of funds.
Telecom Egypt says sells stakes in
Internet firms (February 7, 2008)
CAIRO (Reuters) - Telecom Egypt,
Egypt's state-run
fixed-line operator, said on Thursday it has agreed to sell its minority
stakes in two Internet service providers to mobile phone operator Etisalat Egypt.
Telecom Egypt
said in a statement Etisalat Egypt, a unit of of the UAE-based Emirates Telecommunications Corp
ETEL.AD, will buy 27.3 percent of Nile Online and 16.5 percent of the
Egyptian Company for Networks (EgyNet).
The company did not disclose the value of the
deal, which it said would be carried out before March 31.
Telecom Egypt also owns TE Data, the
country's biggest Internet service provider. Telecom Egypt will lose its monopoly
over fixed-line telephones when the government auctions a second license in
2008. Etisalat has said it would bid for the
license.
France Telecom inaugurates Cairo Orange Labs (January 6, 2008)
- Didier Lombard, Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of France Telecom Orange Group inaugurated the Group's 18th Orange
Labs in Cairo,
in the presence of Tarek Kamel,
the Egyptian Communications and Information Minister.
The creation of the Cairo Orange Labs allows
France Telecom Group to expand its presence in Egypt, a country where France
Telecom is present since 1998 through Mobinil and
Orange Business Services.
France Telecom is the main shareholder of Mobinil, which is the first mobile operator in Egypt
with more than 14 million customers. Orange Business Services, dedicated to
communication services to multinational companies has 1500 engineers in Cairo and is serving
approximately 150 multinational companies, as well as around 50 airlines.
With the new Cairo Orange Labs, the Group now has 18 Orange Labs around the
world.
The Cairo Orange Labs, in collaboration with the
global Orange Labs network, enhances the Group's capacity to deliver
innovative services to its customers, especially in the Middle East Africa
region. The Cairo Orange Labs is also a unique opportunity to create
partnerships with the local ecosystem.
The main research and development work will focus
on the following subjects: development of global solutions for the Group;
ergonomics for products and services on the multinational business market
and the local retail market; voice services and content access in Arabic;
usages and services for the region; research into local uses; network solutions
set against specific economic and environmental constraints.
By the end of 2008, the Cairo Orange Labs will
employ 50 people, with over 90% Egyptians.
In order to integrate this new Orange Labs into
the local ecosystem, the laboratories have been set up to the west of Cairo, in the 'Smart Village'
technology hub, which is home to various companies from the IT and telecoms
sector as well as various public organizations (Telecommunications
Ministry, National Telecommunications Institute, etc.).
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