Orange Egypt losses jump by 3245% in H1

French telecoms company Orange posted a bigger first half loss in Egypt, its financial indicators showed Monday.

The company’s losses in Egypt widened to 1.104 billion Egyptian pounds ($61.6 million) in the first half of 2017, around 3245 percent higher from 33 million pounds in the same period last year.

On the other hand, consolidated revenues rose 6.33 percent to around 6.1 billion pounds from 5.8 billion pounds last year.

The jump in losses was due to three factors. The first was the increase in the number of loans given to Orange Egypt, the indicators showed, citing the high interest rates to 400 points which raised the borrowing costs in return.

The second factor was the high interest rates which led to the increase in the operating costs, such as the hikes in fuel and electricity prices, the indicators added.

As for the third factor, the indicators referred to the impact of the liberalisation of the Egyptian pound against foreign currencies in early November 2016, which also affected the company’s operating costs.