Orange and Orascom Telecom Media and Technology (OTMT) have agreed that Orange will purchase all the shares and voting rights held directly or indirectly by OTMT in the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (ECMS) for EUR 209.6 million. ECMS is the holding company for Egyptian mobile operator Mobinil.
Orange said the transaction will be completed through the exercise of Orange's call option under the shareholders agreement signed by the two parties in April 2012. The transfer of OTMT's direct stake in ECMS will be completed as an 'over the counter' transaction between the two main shareholders. The parties expect that the transaction will be finalized by the end of Q1.
The EUR 209.6 million pricetag includes OTMT's 5 percent direct stake in ECMS at EGP 280.7 per share, and 28.75 percent of the voting rights of MT Telecom (MTT), the holding company of ECMS that is fully owned by Orange, for EUR 45.8 million. These sums have already been provisioned fully by Orange.
As a result of this transaction, Orange will increase its stake in ECMS from around 94 percent to around 99 percent of the capital. Mobinil had 33 million customers at the end of the third quarter of 2014 and recorded 4 percent year-on-year growth in revenues.
