CAIRO: Egypt's leading telecommunications company Orascom Telecom announced over the weekend that it has agreed to sell its Namibian subsidiary Telecel Globe unit Powercom to Investec and Nedbank. The move, analysts here in Cairo say, was expected in order to give the company more investment power elsewhere. “This was a deal that we had long expected to see take place, especially as Orascom looks to make investments elsewhere,” said Nabil Huwaishi, a Cairo-based securities analyst. Orascom said in a public statement that the sale also includes $60 million of Powercom liabilities, but did not disclose the full total of the agreement. The Namibian governmental regulator will now be required to approve the sale before it can be completed. Orascom CEO Ahmed Abou Doma was quoted as saying the deal is good for Powercom because “it strengthens the company through solid local partners.” Orascom has become a leading international telecommunications company operating GSM networks in high growth markets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia and has an indirect equity shareholding in Globalive Wireless Canada. BM
