CAIRO: Egypt s regulator will reject France Telecom offers for outstanding shares in mobile operator Mobinil if the price is not equivalent to that set in an earlier arbitration ruling, the daily Al-Mal reported on Sunday. Otherwise, France Telecom (FT) would need to provide good reason on the basis of which the (Egyptian Financial Supervisory) Authority could accept a differentiation in dealing with the shareholders of a single company, the authority s deputy chairman Khaled Serry Seyam said, according to Al-Mal. FT is embroiled in an ownership dispute with Mobinil s other main shareholder, Orascom Telecom. An arbitration court has ruled that Orascom should sell FT its stake in a holding company that owns 51 percent of Mobinil. But FT rejects the assertion by Orascom and the regulator that the ruling obliges it to bid for the remaining shares in Mobinil at an equivalent price per share. The regulator rejected on Thursday a third FT offer for the outstanding shares in Mobinil, saying the offer violated the principle of giving equal opportunity to all shareholders. Seyam told Al-Mal that alternatively, a France Telecom offer would need to be backed by all holders of Mobinil s free-floating shares. Seyam s office had no immediate comment on the newspaper report. Thursday s offer had been based on the approval of 3 percent of the shareholders to sell their stakes at LE230 ($41.20) per share, significantly lower than the LE273 Orascom Telecom and the regulator say the ruling obliges FT to pay, according to the paper. Hisham El-Alaily, France Telecom s vice president for Africa, Asia and the Middle East told Al-Mal that the latest offer obliged France Telecom to compensate shareholders who sold their stakes if they received better offers within three months of the transaction. El-Alaily said that the price of LE230 was the highest level Mobinil shares had traded at in the past 12 months, and called the regulator s rejection unjustified. Alaily added that based on the regulator s response to the appeals lodged by France Telecom, the firm would decide whether to seek recourse to arbitration, or local or international courts. France Telecom has said the two firms initially disagreed over Mobinil s budget and expenditure, marketing strategy and start up of 3G services. In addition to owning shares in the holding company, Orascom has a 20 percent direct stake in Mobinil.
