Orascom to expand to Africa?

Egyptian Telecom company Orascom has expressed interest in expanding to Africa as well as strengthening its standing in Pakistan. Orascom, which has expansive operations in the likes of Algeria and Egypt, hopes to get a foothold in sub-Saharan countries utilising Telecel Globe, its African subsidiary, to make acquisitions.

Despite only providing less than 1.8 percent of Orascom's revenues, Telecel Globe exceeded one million subscribers for the first time in June with users from the likes of Zimbabwe, Burundi, Namibia and the Central African Republic.

It is a strong expansion for Orascom, which has recently been embroiled in a stand off with Algerian authorities over taxes. The dispute has been over requiring foreign firms to prove they do not owe tax before they can repatriate dividends to their parent company. The tax regulator says Orascom unit Djezzy owes $50 million from 2004. Orascom denies this.

"We expect this issue to be settled in the next couple of weeks," chief financial officer Aldo Mareuse said speaking to Arabian Business. "We have put a deposit of 20 percent ($10 million) to defer the payment while we are talking with the government regarding the exact amount, if any."

The company is also planning to expand further into Asia and is seeking a small bank to strengthen its mobile banking offering in Pakistan.

Mareus stated the company needed to grow more with the objective being to get to 10 counties. In Asia, Mareuse said Orascom was eyeing small banks in Bangladesh and Pakistan, where the firm bid unsuccessfully for Royal Bank of Scotland's unit, to grow its mobile banking offer.

"We looked at certain assets in Pakistan, we have not been successful so far, but we are still very keen to push an acquisition of a bank, to get the banking licence."

Not content with dominating the Middle East, Orascom have also interest in moving services to Canada. Mareuse has stated he expected Canadian regulator approval by the end of September for a launch of mobile operations in a couple of cities by the end of 2009.

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