Wednesday, Nov 16, 2011
(This story was originally published Tuesday.)
By Shereen El Gazzar
Of ZAWYA DOW JONES
ABU DHABI(Zawya Dow Jones)--Egypt's Orascom Telecom Holding (ORTE.CI) Tuesday denied it is in talks with Algeria regarding the government's first right of refusal on the telco's Algerian unit Djezzy.
"Orascom Telecom is not a party in any negotiations with the Algerian government with this regard and it did not issue any orders to its unit in Algeria to conduct any negotiations of this nature," the telco said in an Arabic statement posted on the Egyptian bourse website. The only negotiations taking places with the Algerian government is through Vimpelcom," Orascom added.
In March, Russia's Vimpelcom (VIP) acquired the telecom assets of Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris for $6 billion. The deal with Sawiris's Wind Telecom SpA secured a more-than-50% stake in Orascom Telecom, including the highly profitable Djezzy unit, as well as Italy's Wind Telecommunicazioni SpA.
Djezzy, which has been Orascom's biggest single source of revenue, has been under threat of nationalization by the Algerian government for about a year.
According to Orascom, the last market price tabled for Djezzy was $7.8 billion by African telecommunications provider MTN Group Limited (MTN.JO) in 2010.
Orascom Telecom shares last traded 1.3% higher at EGP3.16.
-By Shereen El Gazzar, Dow Jones Newswires, +9714 446 1684 Shereen.elgazzar@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
16-11-11 0358GMT
