Vodafone Egypt may use old credit facility to acquire 4G licence

Vodafone Egypt is to allocate 2 billion Egyptian pounds ($225.1 million) from an old credit facility to finance 4G purchase plans, banking sources with knowledge told Amwal Al Ghad.

Around two years ago, Vodafone Egypt signed a credit facility worth 4 billion pounds with an alliance of seven banks; Commercial International Bank (CIB), Banque Misr, AlexBank, HSBC, Emirates NBD, QNB, and Barclays.

Khaled Hegazy, director of external and legal relations at Vodafone Egypt, said earlier in July that his company would probably self-finance half of the 4G licence in Egyptian pound by depending on a credit facility formerly secured.

Hegazy also said Vodafone Egypt’s main concern on how to secure dollar liquidity to pay the other half of the 4G licence.

4G is the fourth generation of mobile telecommunication technology and offers dramatically higher data transmission speeds than its predecessor, 3G, which is currently in use in Egypt.

Egyptian telecoms regulator, NTRA asked Vodafone to pay 3.54 billion pounds for a 4G licence, half of which must be paid in US dollars. The two mobile operators were also asked to pay 100 million pounds and 1.8 billion pounds

Vodafone Egypt will have to pay 3.54 billion pounds for a 4G licence. The mobile operator is also required to pay 1.8 billion pounds for the right to offer international calls, and 100 million pounds for a licence to offer landline service.

Telecom Egypt on Wednesday acquired the country’s first 4G mobile licence at a cost of 7.08 billion pounds paving the way for it to become the fourth mobile provider in Egypt.