CAIRO: Egypt's leading telecom company Orascom Telecom said it has inked a new deal that will see its Bangladeshi subsidiary Banglalink operate in the country for another 15 years. The new deal sparked a surge in the company's shares on Egypt's Stock Market on Monday, pushing the company further upward. According to Orascom, the Bangladeshi unit will pay $263 million for spectrum and license renewals over a three-year period . Orascom CEO Ahmed Abou Doma said the company had been in negotiations with the Bangladeshi government for a year, resulting in an agreement that encourages continued investments in the country's telecommunication services. The government says about 75 million people out of a nation of 160 million have cell phones. Banglalink is one of Orascom's largest units by revenue. The company says it has over 20 million subscribers, representing a market share of 27 percent. Analysts in Egypt told Bikyamasr.com that the new deal is likely to push the company forward on expansion plans as it looks to bolster its global holdings in the telecom sector. “OT has already shown itself savvy in its global efforts to boost its market share and this deal ensures that it will be able to off-load unwanted units and start to develop itself in other major markets,” said Ahmed Daoud, an IT analyst with CI Capital in Cairo. He argued that the move will help enable the Cairo-based company to make bids elsewhere. “It will be interesting to watch where the company goes in the near future,” he added. BM
