Orascom Telecom (OT) said it had agreed to a request by the Algerian government not to sell its Algerian subsidiary, Djezzy, to South African mobile phone company MTN.
An OT source said the company acknowledged that, in terms of purchasing the subsidiary, the Algerian government had priority.
OT has been negotiating a US$9 billion deal in which MTN would buy part or all of its assets. However, it was never mentioned whether Djezzy, its most lucrative subsidiary–which accounts for 37 percent of its total profits–would be included in that deal.
Bloomberg News reported that OT and MTN were still negotiating over Djezzy despite the Algerian request, which OT spokeswoman Manal Abdel Hamid declined to comment on.
In a related development, the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority requested that OT reveal its financial and expansion plans since these could potentially affect the entire stock exchange.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
