CAIRO: Orascom Telecom (OT) has made no progress in a dispute with the Algerian government and will bring the matter to international arbitration if it is not resolved, OT's chairman said on Monday. The long-running dispute over Djezzy, OT's biggest single source of revenue, has complicated a $6 billion plus deal for Russia's Vimpelcom to take control of OT and its parent Wind Telecom. Vimpelcom's shareholders last month approved the takeover, which is expected to close by May. "There is no progress till now on the matter of Djezzy," OT Chairman Naguib Sawiris told reporters at a news conference at the Egyptian stock exchange on Monday. "We had been expecting that when this deal came through there would be a change. There has been no change." Algeria's government, which said it will nationalise Djezzy, has hit the unit with hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes and barred it from moving profits abroad. It also blocked Orascom from selling the unit to South Africa's MTN. Consultants hired by Algeria to value Djezzy are scheduled to complete their work by the end of May. Sawiris said in a separate interview on Monday with Al Arabiya television that Algeria was continuing to hinder Djezzy's activities. "It is our belief that we have suffered much injustice in this matter. Our taxes were increased with no justification and illegally," Sawiris told Al Arabiya." "Our sites were destroyed. Even in the matter of competition many obstacles were placed in front of us -- equipment imports were prohibited, SIM card imports, and Algeria TV blocked our advertisements. None of these things has changed yet," he added. "If a solution is not reached, then we will resort to international arbitration because of the losses that we were exposed to," he said. Newspaper Al Mal earlier cited Sawiris as saying that OT had delayed seeking international arbitration over Djezzy and he saw room for an amicable solution. But Sawiris told reporters Vimpelcom believed things should be allowed to calm down before pressing ahead in the dispute with Algeria. –Additional reporting by Ehab Farouk and Sarah Mikhail
