INTERVIEW-Orascom says wants to buy Hutchison phone unit http://today.reuters.com/news/articlebusiness.aspx?type=telecomm&storyID=nSFA003272&from=business
Sun Oct 15, 2006
By Hsu Chuang Khoo
SINGAPORE, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Egypt's Orascom Telecom (ORTE.CA: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it wants to buy Hutchison Whampoa's (0013.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) emerging markets phone unit, or at least take a controlling stake in the firm.
Orascom bought a 19.3 percent stake in Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. (2332.HK: Quote, Profile, Research)(HTX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for $1.3 billion last December, obtaining exposure to Asian markets.
It now wants to take over the phone unit, or at least own a controlling stake in it.
"We are in constant talks on the price, to come to a price that is fair to both parties," Naguib Sawiris, chairman of Egypt-based Orascom Telecom (ORTE.CA: Quote, Profile, Research)(ORTEq.L: Quote, Profile, Research), told Reuters on the sidelines of a telecommunications conference in Singapore. When asked what share he wanted to purchase, Sawiris said: "All of it," adding "We want to at least get to a controlling stake."
He declined to provide a timeline or the premium that he would be willing to pay for the shares.
Orascom has mobile phone subsidiaries in the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan.
It operates GSM networks in Algeria, Pakistan, Egypt, Tunisia, Iraq, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, and is traded on the Egyptian bourse and on the London Stock Exchange. The firm's subscribers exceeded 30 million by the end of 2005.
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