Egyptian Ministry Reviews Telecom Egypt’s Divesting Stake in Vodafone

By Salma Ayman On Nov 6, 2013

Eng. Atef Helmy, Egyptian Telecom Minister, has asserted that 80-90% of the outstanding problems between Telecom Egypt (ETAL)(TE) and the three mobile phone operators have been solved.

The Minister has informed Amwal Al Ghad that the exit of TE from Vodafone is necessary, asserting that the Ministry is reviewing with TE and Vodafone the best scenarios to exit from Vodafone which owns 45% of its shares.

Helmy has confirmed that the exit will be after TE will obtain the integrated operator license according to the rules of competition, saying the Ministry is currently considering all the choices which including the exit of TE from Vodafone’s management, or selling its shares to any other body, or the capture Vodafone global to the entire shares of the company.

He noted that the ministry and the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA), are aiming to reach for final decision to all outstanding problems between the companies so as to avoid any clashes or controversial points during the coming period after launching the license.

TE has attained EGP500million profits of its share which estimated with 45% from Vodafone at the end of the last fiscal year.

NTRA announced previously in September2012about the offering of integrated operator license which will grant the right to TE to provide mobile phone services in return for granting to mobile phone operators the possibility of providing fixed phone services and extend infrastructure, in addition hosting the international callings after two years since operating the license.

An official report which issued by Telecom Ministry has revealed that the number of mobile phone subscribers increased around 120K subscribers, so the number of mobile users become 96.86 million at the end of last July.

The Ministry’s indexes explained that the number of Vodafone’s subscribers reached about 329K, in compared to June 2013, to seize 42.2% of mobile phone market, and it ranked first as the most operator seized subscribers.