Egypt's Orascom looking at Telekom Austria

Egyptian telecoms operator Orascom is looking at buying Telekom Austria and has been in touch with the company and the Austrian government, its main shareholder, a newspaper reported on Monday.

Austrian daily Kurier said the deal could be structured as a merger of Orascom Telecom and Telekom Austria under which Austria's government holding company OeIAG would keep a stake in the merged company.

OeIAG and Telekom Austria were not immediately available for a comment.

The report said Orascom was looking at working with private equity group Weather Investments for financing.

Weather Investments spokesman Stefano Songini said he could not comment on whether talks about Telekom Austria had taken place. He said that in general Weather Investments had been talking "a number of large telecom operators."

OeIAG owns 28 percent of Telekom Austria on behalf of the government and would need approval for a sale of the stake.

Orascom owns telecom operators in Africa and the Mediterranean, including Italy and Greece, and is seeking further expansion opportunities.

Telekom Austria Chief Executive Boris Nemsic said in an interview last month he was "open but neutral" on possible "strategic partnerships" with other telecoms operators. (Reuters)

Print | Email | Discuss this article |

READERS' COMMENTS

View all comments (0)

Have your say

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Security Code *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM