Dr. Khaled Serry Siam, Vice-Chairman of the Capital Market Authority, has said the CMA will announce within the next few hours its position regarding the bid made by France Telecom through Orange Participations to take over all the shares of the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services Mobinil. Meanwhile, Naguib Sawiris, Chairman of Orascom Telecom, said the French company has not yet responded to his company's proposal to hold direct negotiations to solve their dispute over Mobinil.
Sawiris said the CMA should reveal the details of the compulsory bid submitted by France Telecom to buy all the shares of Mobinil. France Telecom and Orascom Telecom own a holding company which has a 51 percent stake in Mobinil. The Egyptian stock exchange has suspended trading the shares of Orascom Telecom and Mobinil shares since Tuesday after the CMA said it was studying France Telecom's bid.
"We think the CMA can't continue acting like this and it should allow our shares to be handled or it should unveil the details of the bid" he said.
Sawiris also said Orascom's hopes to buy a stake in the Moroccan company Méditel have weakened as there were higher bids.
Meanwhile, a source close to Orascom has said that the lawsuit filed to Cairo Economic Court to dissolve the sale contract in favor of France Telecom aims to protect Orascom in case the CMA approved France Telecom's bid at less than LE 273 according to the award of the international arbitration, as there are fears that the price of the bid might be less than that.
