Orascom to buy back 7.2 per cent of shares

Egypt-based Orascom Telecom (OT) has filed applications with the Egyptian Capital Market Authority and the Egyptian Exchange to buy back 7.2 per cent of the company’s issued shares over the next three months.

OT has a potential repurchase plan of London-listed global depository receipts (GDR) and up to 65 million local shares – equating to 13 million GDRs, which have a current market value of EGP1.118 billion (US$201 million).

OT shares stooped on February 5 to their lowest close in more than four years at EGP17.20, down from an all time high of EGP100 in January 2007.

The Cairo-based company has telecoms operations in Algeria, Pakistan, Egypt, Tunisia, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and North Korea. Through its subsidiary Telecel Globe it also operates in Burundi, the Central African Republic and Namibia, and has a group-wide subscriber base of more than 79 million customers as of September 30, 2008.