Mobinil, which leads the Egyptian mobile market by subscriber numbers, said on Tuesday it could raise funds to finance expansion via a loan or bonds. Al-Mal newspaper reported on Sunday that Mobinil was considering raising up to 2 billion Egyptian pounds (US$346.4 million) to expand its network and services. "We are always studying possible ways of financing from several sources. We are now discussing the possibility of obtaining a loan or issuing new bonds," Chief Executive Officer Hassan Kabbani told al-Arabiya satellite channel. He did not give its value. Local newspapers suggested earlier that the size of any loan depended on market conditions as well as talks with Commercial International Bank (CIB) and state-owned National Bank of Egypt. The central bank has blocked Mobinil, jointly owned by France Telecom and Orascom Telecom, from further bank borrowing because its creditor banks have reached the limit they can lend to any one client. When calculating single client loans, the central bank also takes the loans of Orascom Telecom into consideration because Orascom owns part of Mobinil. Kabbani was quoted this week as saying Mobinil had asked the two banks to seek an exception for the firm because Mobinil had incorporated its financial accounts into those of its other major shareholder, France Telecom. Mobinil's chief executive had said in September the firm was considering issuing bonds worth 1 billion pounds. The firm issued 1.5 billion pounds in bonds in January. (US$1=LE5.773)
