CAIRO: Regional Arab telecoms operator Orascom Telecom (OT) will not give up its stake in Mobinil without exhausting all legal avenues, its chairman was quoted as saying in a newspaper on Thursday. I am the one who got the license, I am the one who built the company. It is true that France Telecom (FT) was a part, but this company is my start and this is my country and I will not give it up even if the struggle lasts for years to come, Naguib Sawiris told state-run daily Al-Ahram, adding that OT would use the legal framework and all legal means available to us. Sawiris said OT was committed to an arbitration court ruling that FT buy OT s 28.75 percent stake in a holding company that controls Mobinil at a price of LE 273.26 ($48.80) per share. I am committed to the ruling and the proof is I sought to carry it out in the designated period and I didn t appeal the decision, Sawiris said. We have documents to prove we went to the stock exchange during the legal period mentioned in the ruling with all our documents to execute (the ruling), and FT did not send their broker, Sawiris said. OT also owns a 20 percent direct stake in Mobinil. Both OT and the Egyptian regulator say FT must offer an equivalent price for freely floated shares, something FT disputes. Meanwhile, FT questioned the neutrality of Egypt s regulator in the firm s dispute with OT over Mobinil ownership in an interview with an Egyptian paper on Thursday. I am very surprised at the strange position of the Capital Market Authority and I m starting to doubt its leanings, FT s head of international operations, Jean-Yves Larrouturou, told the independent Al-Shorouk daily. All its actions indicate that it is looking at things with double standards. It is not taking any measures against the other partner (OT) like it is doing with us, he added. Larrouturou also said that OT chairman Naguib Sawiris, by only giving FT two unattractive options to resolve the dispute, was trying to force it out of Egypt. The CMA was not immediately available to comment. The regulator has twice rejected FT offers to buy all outstanding shares not owned by the holding company since an arbitration ruling on April 5. The regulator said on Tuesday that FT could not buy more than 2 percent of Mobinil shares listed on the open market without securing its approval, after FT said it had agreements to buy 3 percent of the free float shares at LE 230. Larrouturou said the two firms disagreed in 2006 over Mobinil s budget and expenditure, marketing strategy and a delay in starting 3G services. Mobinil was the last of three mobile operators in Egypt to offer 3G services, launching in September last year. Larrouturou said such disagreements are to be expected in any partnership, but (OT chairman Naguib) Sawiris took the disagreement as an excuse and sought international arbitration without consulting us. Larrouturou said OT was giving FT only two tough choices: up the price offered for minority shares, or start over with a 50-50 partnership in the holding company. It is as if he wanted to kick us out of the country, and this is unacceptable, he said. In its latest ruling, the CMA disputed the ownership of assets FT claimed made its stake more valuable, cited disputes over the distribution of retained earnings and trademarks, and did not accept an FT claim that management fees paid to the holding company increased its value as these fees had not been disclosed to shareholders. Larrouturou told Reuters last week that FT had excellent relations with the Egyptian government, but that the firm might consider reducing its investments in Egypt if the country had strayed outside international law. He told Shorouk the French firm had identified two or three potential local partners who could join them later in running Mobinil. He did not name them but said Egyptian entrepreneur Rami Lakah was not among them.
