Orascom Telecom has confirmed it is in talks with France Telecom over the future of their Egyptian mobile network joint-venture, Mobinil.

Responding to queries from the Egyptian Stock Exchange regarding rumours of talks, Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding confirmed in a brief statement that it is "in an advanced stage of negotiations with France Telecom concerning Mobinil."

The company holdings are slightly complex. The Egyptian mobile network is owned by a holding company – called ECMS – which is in turn 29 per cent listed on the stock exchange, 20 per cent owned by Orascom Telecom and the remaining 51 per cent is owned by another holding company, also called Mobinil.

Following a legal dispute that was settled in 2009, the holding company is wholly owned by France Telecom, giving it 51 per cent of the company and effective control of the mobile network.

It was reported last year that France Telecom could trigger a put-option to buy Orascom Telecom’s 20 per cent stake in ECMS if certain conditions were not met as part of the parent group’s sale to Russia’s VimpelCom.

If that put-option is exercised, then France Telecom could theoretically increase its stake to 71 per cent.

Saudi Arabia’s Mobily has signed a SAR10 billion (US$2.67 billion) refinancing agreement with seven local banks to refinance three of its existing long, medium and short term loans.

The loans being refinanced, which are covered 3.5 times, are the remainders of a SAR10.781 billion long term loan negotiated by the company in 2007, a SAR1.5 billion medium term loan negotiated in 2009 and a SAR1.2 billion short term loan negotiated in 2010.

The refinancing arrangement gives Mobily access to banking facilities of up to SAR 10 billion, including credit facilities, payable in four tranches over five to seven years.

The telco said in a statement to the stock market that it has chosen to take the action now rather than in the future, as Mobily was able to negotiate more favourable repayment rates with the banks.

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has selected Ericsson as one of the main vendors in the telco’s deployment of its LTE network in Saudi Arabia. Utilising Ericsson’s end-to-end LTE solution, STC will be able to provide customers with an enhanced experience, enabling true high-speed Internet, rich multimedia applications such as high definition (HD) video streaming and chatting, cloud services and conferencing and high definition applications.

With 4G/LTE technology, STC customers will enjoy an unparalleled mobile-broadband experience providing ultra-high data speeds across the kingdom.

In addition to managing the existing STC 2G and 3G networks, Ericsson will also manage the new STC LTE network whereby Ericsson will optimise, manage, operate and continuously improve STC’s 2G, 3G and now 4G networks. Ericsson will also introduce a new subscriber data model that will facilitate management and access to data, launch of new services, connecting to the cloud and independent scalability of storage and processing capacity. Ericsson will also introduce an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) with STC that will act as a common core network solution supporting 2G, 3G and 4G/LTE technologies providing additional capacity and throughput.

Alcatel-Lucent announced full-year results that met its earlier guidance and a quarterly performance that saw a “double digit decline” in the company’s Wireless business, due to “lower spending after several quarters of strong activity.” Q4 revenue in the Wireless unit amounted to €893 million (US$1.178 billion), down 22.8 per cent year-on-year.

However, overall Alcatel-Lucent reported net income of €868 million in Q4, more than double the €340 million reported in the same period in2010, on revenue of €4.15 billion, down 12.9 per cent from €4.76 billion. The net income figure includes €353 million in tax-related gains.

For the full year, Alcatel-Lucent’s net income amounted to €1.1 billion, compared with a 2010 loss of €334 million, on revenue of €15.3 billion, down 2.1 per cent year-on-year.

CEO Ben Verwaayen described the full-year results as “the first positive full-year net results for Alcatel-Lucent since the merger.”

Vodafone has reported a decline in its revenues for the three months to the end of December 2011 of 2.3 per cent to £11.62 billion (US$18.45 billion). On an organic basis, without disposals being included, then revenues would have risen by 1.6 per cent.

The telco said it saw strong service revenue growth in India +20.0 per cent, Vodacom +8.0 per cent and Turkey +23.5 per cent; continued progress in Germany +0.7 per cent and the UK +1.1 per cent.

However, economic conditions in southern Europe showed further deterioration, with revenues declining by -4.9 per cent in Italy; and -8.8 per cent in Spain.

Looking forward, the company said it expects its adjusted operating profit to be in the £11.4 billion to £11.8 billion range, as previously stated. It also expects its EBITDA margin decline to be at a lower rate than in the previous financial year.