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TMCNet: Orascom eyes French telecom group

[November 26, 2009]

Orascom eyes French telecom group

(TradeArabia Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Orascom Telecom, a leading telecom services provider in Egypt, would be interested in buying French telecom group Bouygues Telecom if parent Bouygues wanted to sell, but there are currently no discussions, Orascom's chairman told a paper.

"We would be interested if they had the intention to sell," Naguib Sawiris said in an interview with French business paper La Tribune.

Asked if a merger would make sense with Bouygues Telecom, the chairman said: "Why not? It would reinforce our presence in the Mediterranean, improve our roaming possibilities, there would be many synergies." As well as its domestic market, Orascom also operates in Algeria, Italy and Greece.

He added that he ruled out a merger with a big telecom operator such as AT&T, Vodafone or Telefonica, but could see "billions of dollars" of possible synergies with "smaller players" in emerging countries or Europe.

Orascom Telecom, which owns shares in Egyptian telecom operator Mobinil coveted by its other shareholder France Telecom, is not ready to sell them, Sawiris said, but he would consider it if the price offered by the telecom giant was fair.

Orascom, which was told earlier this month by Algerian tax authorities that it owes $596.6 million in outstanding tax penalties, has no intention of leaving Algeria or selling its operator there to Vivendi, Sawiris said. – Reuters (c) 2009 Al Hilal Publishing & Marketing Group Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company

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