Regional mobile company Orascom Telecom (OT) has announced it had incurred a consolidated net loss of 37.2 million Egyptian pounds ($8.72 million) in the second quarter of 2001. OT had registered a loss in the first quarter of the year as well, at LE32.8 million, according to Prime Securities.
The company’s net loss for the six-month period thus totals LE70 million, as compared to a net profit of LE66.1 million in the first half of the previous year.
OT’s sub-Saharan African subsidiary, Telecel, which had been acquired in late 2000, accounts for 94 percent of OT’s associated losses in the first half of the current year. In August, OT was reportedly mulling the sale of Telecel, in order to finance its recently acquired Algerian GSM license.
OT was awarded the license at $737 million, half of which was paid in August 2001, while the rest is due at the end of 2003. Orascom Telecom Algeria, which is 51 percent owned by Orascom Telecom, has concluded a $386 million contract with the French Alcatel for the development of Algerian GSM network, scheduled to begin October 2001.
Over the past two years, OT has acquired licenses and joint ventures spanning 20 countries in the Middle East, Southwest Asia and Africa and serving some 2.1 million subscribers. — (Mena Report)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
