The board of directors of Global Telecom Holding Company has approved the report of the Independent Financial Advisor Grant Thornton at VEON's offer. The independent financial advisor's report on the valuation of Global Telecom Holding Company on 31 March was EGP 23.264bn, distributed over 4.721bn shares. The average fair value (FV) per share was EGP 4.93. The FV of the stock at EGP 4.93 confirms the attractiveness of the offer of VEON at EGP 5.08.This is the purchase price which was reduced from EGP 5.30 against the background of the resolution of the tax dispute for $136m (EGP 2.3bn) down from the EGP 5.5bn estimate in previous entitlements. Daily News Egypt reported that 1,086bn shares, 54%, responded to the offer of VEON from the total 1.99bn shares in the offer, with some 900m shares still unresponsive to the offer, until the end of yesterday's trading session. The purchase offer is due to expire on 42.31% of the shares of Global Telecom at a price of EGP 5.08 per share on 6 August. The offer will be executed within five working days following the expiry of the offer period. Head of Research at SHUAA Securities Egypt, Amr Hussein Elalfy, said that Global Telecom's FV report for VEON is attractive, since the offer price is EGP 0.15 more than the FV of the share. At the same time, most of these shares are changing hands at the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) at a lower price compared to the FV, making the offer a good chance for minority traders and local funds to sell at good prices higher than the FV of the shares, considering that, given the new tax settlement, VEON will bear half of the settlement fine, which would benefit minority shareholders. The board of directors of Global Telecom Holding Company decided to proceed with the optional write-off of the shares of the company from the EGX following the acceptance of the offer by VEON. VEON owns 57.7% of Global Telecom, which operates mobile networks in Algeria, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, with more than 102 million customers.
