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Algeria to pay $6.5 billion for Vimpelcom's Djezzy: Source Valuation may clear the way to end a dispute involving Egypt's Orascom Telecom which has spun on for more than year
Algeria will pay $6.5 billion to acquire a controlling stake in Vimpelcom's Algerian mobile phone unit, a top finance ministry source said on Wednesday, potentially ending a dispute that has dragged for over a year. "The deal is that Algeria will pay $6.5 billion to acquire 51 per cent of Djezzy," a senior source familiar with the telecommunications file at the finance ministry told Reuters. Russia-focused Vimpelcom acquired Djezzy last year as part of a $6 billion deal to buy the assets of Egyptian firm Orascom Telecom, but the transaction immediately became clouded in uncertainty after the Algerian government said it wanted a majority stake in the unit. Djezzy was the most lucrative part of Orascom's business.