The chairman of Egyptian mobile phone giant Orascom Telecom says Sunday that he expects talks with South Africa's MTN Group over the purchase of some of Orascom's units will be wrapped up within a week. In comments carried Sunday by Al-Mal financial daily, Naguib Sawiris says MTN, Africa's largest mobile phone service provider, confirmed it was committed to moving along with a potential buyout of Orascom's African assets. The potential deal, which had been valued at as much as $10 billion, faced an obstacle when the Algerian government recently indicated it would block any attempt by Orascom to sell its Djezzy subsidiary in the country to MTN. Djezzy is Orascom's biggest unit by revenue, and was seen as the prize of the deal. Meanwhile, Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) siad yesterday it had not bid for the Algerian unit of Orascom Telecom. "We did not discuss with Orascom and did not make an offer," Ahmed bin Ali told Reuters. On Thursday, the Egyptian mobile firm said it would enter negotiations to sell its Djezzy unit to the Algerian government, which blocked a preferred deal with South Africa's MTN. Etisalat's chairman, Mohamed Omran, said in February that the firm was interested in the Algerian market when the time was right and there had been speculation the Abu Dhabi-listed firm could make an offer for Djezzy.
