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By Shereen El Gazzar
Special to ZAWYA DOW JONES
CAIRO (Zawya Dow Jones)--Orascom Telecom Holding (ORTE.CI)
Chairman Naguib Sawiris Wednesday said Polish mobile phone operator
Polkomtel and Serbia's Telekom Srbija are potential acquisition
targets for the company.
Sawiris told Zawya Dow Jones that the Arab world's biggest
mobile telephone operator by subscribers is keen on the Polish and
Serbian telecom markets. He didn't say how much of either firm
Orascom might consider buying.
Polkomtel is 21.85% owned by Poland's largest power group, PGE
SA (PGE.WA), while oil refiner PKN Orlen SA (PKN.WA) and copper
miner KGHM Polska Miedz SA (KGH.WA) each hold 24.39%. The three
companies are controlled by the Polish Treasury. Polish state-owned
coalminer Weglokoks has 5%, while Vodafone Group PLC (VOD) holds
24.39% of shares. Polkomtel posted profit of 980 million zloty
($306 million) in 2009.
Telekom Srbija is majority state-owned, but the government in
March announced plans to sell part of its stake. Greece's Hellenic
Telecommunications Organization SA (OTE) has 20%.
Polkomtel declined to comment on Sawiris' potential interest in
the company.
A person familiar with the matter said the telecom firm seemed
convinced that Orascom "has the potential" to make the acquisition.
According to analysts' estimates, Polkomtel could be worth 16
billion zloty ($5 billion).
Telekom Srbija wasn't immediatelly available to comment.
After weighing the idea of listing Polkomtel on the Warsaw Stock
Exchange, its handful of shareholders--mainly former communist-era
Polish conglomerates--have opted for a trade sale as part of their
drive to dispose of non-core assets. Two Polish shareholders said
in June that Vodafone had expressed initial interest in selling its
minority stake in Polkomtel, which could see the entire company on
the market later this year.
According to earlier reports in Poland, KGHM and PKN Orlen in
May pitched their Polkomtel stakes to Orascom, while the Polish
treasury hinted in October 2009 that the Egyptian company could be
interested.
"I guess he [Sawiris] is looking for relatively higher ARPUs
[average revenue per user], regardless of the penetration rate
levels in those countries," said Amr El Alfy, director of research
at Egyptian investment bank CI Capital.
In April, Orascom Telecom was in talks to sell some of its
African assets to MTN Group Ltd. (MTN.JO), Africa's largest mobile
network operator. But the two companies last month said they had
ended their talks due to regulatory hurdles.
Orascom also faced complications when the Algerian government
said it would block any attempt by MTN to buy Orascom Telecom's
Algerian unit, Djezzy, which has the largest share of the Algerian
market and is also Orascom's single largest source of revenue.
Cairo-based investment bank Beltone Financial values the unit at
$6.7 billion, or 51% of its valuation for all of Orascom.
Orascom Telecom is majority owned by Rome-based Weather
Investments SpA. Sawiris and his family own the majority of
Weather, which owns 51% of Orascom Telecom Holding, plus Wind
Telecomunicazioni SpA and Greek telecommunications firm Wind
Hellas.
On July 1, Wind Hellas said it had begun a strategic review,
including the potential sale of the business and the appointment of
a chief restructuring officer, as the company's performance
continues to suffer from the Greek government's austerity
measures.
Orascom Telecom shares closed trading Wednesday down 0.2% at
EGP4.89, in a lower overall market.
-By Shereen El Gazzar, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires' +201
2429 8286; Shereen.elgazzar@gmail.com
(Ainsley Thomson in London, Marcin Sobczyk in Warsaw and Alkman
Granitsas in Athens contributed to this article.)