Orascom Telecom to double investment in Iraq (19/03/05)

Orascom Telecom (OT) will near triple its investment in Pakistan to $1 billion and almost double its investment in Iraq to $220 million, the firm's chairman said in comments published today.

Orascom will almost double its investment in Iraq to $220 million

The Cairo-based mobile-phone service provider will push its investment up from $350 million in Pakistan because it expected an increase in subscribers in the nation of nearly 150 million. "The group's investment in Pakistan will rise to $1 billion from $350 million to expand the network in light of an expectation the number of subscribers will increase to 4 million by the end of the current year," chairman Naguib Sawiris said.

"(There will be) An extra $100 million in investments in the Iraqi market, which presently are $120 million," Sawiris added in the comments to Al Hayat newspaper.

OT said in November it had launched mobile telephone services in southern Iraq and planned to start a network in the north. The firm gained a licence in December 2003 to launch its services in Iraq.

Subscribers in Iraq would increase to 1 million soon from 800,000 at present and OT expected its licence to operate in the country to be extended past 2006, Naguib Sawiris said. He also said OT paid $250 million to improve the network of its wholly-owned subsidiary in Bangladesh, called Banglalink.

Sawiris did not elaborate on previous comments OT was seeking arbitration in a dispute over a deal to buy additional stakes worth more than 20 percent in each of its Algerian and Tunisian subsidiaries. In addition to Pakistan, Iraq, Bangladesh, Algeria and Tunisia, OT also has operations in Egypt and some sub-Saharan African states.

Source : TradeArabia