Mickael Ghossein is set to stand down as CEO of Orange Jordan next month, and move across to the French telco’s Kenyan operation as CEO of Orange Kenya, Comm. can reveal. Ghossein is a France Telecom veteran who was appointed Orange Jordan CEO in September 2006, having headed mobile operator MobileCom until December 2005, and then having been appointed executive vice president of Jordan Telecom Group prior to becoming CEO of the integrated operator.

Ghossein has presided over the integration of Orange Jordan’s previously separate business lines of wireline, wireless, broadband and carrier services.

Ghossein is set to head to Kenya having steered Orange Jordan through its integration programme

Orange has been focusing on convergence in its Kenyan offering through its 51 per cent stake in Telkom Kenya in a transaction that it completed in December 2007. The French telco has slowly been undertaking a transformation of the business, which resulted in the introduction of the Orange brand in Kenya in September 2008.

Telkom Kenya launched GSM mobile services in September becoming the country’s first integrated provider of mobile, fixed-line and Internet services.

Orange Kenya signed a national roaming agreement with the country’s largest mobile operator Safaricom, while broadband Internet was initially available in the cities of Nairobi and Mombassa.

Prior to the launch of Orange’s mobile services in Kenya, and according to Mobile World database, Safaricom and Zain Kenya collectively counted 14.3 million subscribers as of June 2008, representing a penetration rate of 39 per cent. A fourth company backed by Econet Wireless launch earlier this year.

Orange’s emphasis for its Kenyan network in 2009 is to offer simplicity through such services as customer care to educate end-users and to demonstrate services. However new dealer commission structures implemented this May, may threaten some of the operator’s distribution channel reach.

Unconfirmed reports from Nigeria have stated that the country’s chief executive and vice chairman of its telecoms regulator, Ernst Ndukwe, is being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for his role in the award of WiMAX licences to bidders that may not have been deserving of the concessions, as well as other matters.

NCC CEO Ndukwe, is said to be having the heat turned up

Earlier this year, the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) licensed three bidders – Multilinks, Mobitel Nigeria Ltd and Spectranet Ltd – with four WiMAX concessions at a cost of N1.37 billion (US$9.27 billion) each. However since the award, allegations of inappropriate and fraudulent activity have been levelled, and are now being investigated.

One of the allegations against the NCC’s licensing process is with regards Mobitel Communications, which was awarded a WiMAX licence following the auction held between April 30 and May 8. Up until last October, Mobitel was said to be indebted to the NCC to the tune of N246 million, which it was unable to pay. This had resulted in the regulator waiving N243 million in debt, and leaving Mobitel set to pay a balance of just N3 million. How a bidder with such a chequered financial history was still able to secure a licence in a process in which 40 bidders were present is being questioned.

Separately, Ndukwe is also accused of exceeding his spending limit and misleading the federal government into the award of contracts for community information centres in certain states in Nigeria.

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France Telecom’s Orange has submitted an obligatory tender offer to buy all the shares of Egyptian mobile operator Mobinil, Egypt’s financial market regulator confirmed earlier this week.

The Capital Markets Authority said it was studying the offer by Orange Participations.

Mobinil, one of three mobile operators in Egypt, has been at the centre of a dispute between regional operator Orascom Telecom and France Telecom.

Egypt’s market regulator had said that France Telecom should tender to buy all shares in Mobinil as part of a court ruling that it purchase Orascom’s stake in a holding company that owns 51 percent of Mobinil.

Mobinil posted a 6 per cent fall in net income last month for the first quarter of 2009 to EGP 424 million (US$75 million), missing most analysts’ forecasts as it faced higher interest costs.

The Egyptian stock exchange said it had suspended trade on Mobinil shares until the markets authority finishes studying the offer. Shares had jumped more than six per cent earlier in the week on speculation of a pending offer.

In way of context, Orascom, which owned 35 per cent of Mobinil, brought arbitration proceedings against Orange, which owned 36 per cent, in an effort to obtain majority control. Ironically, the International Court of Arbitration ruled earlier this year that Orange should buy out Orascom, which would have resulted in Orascom receiving US$1.7 billion, by its calculations, or US$715 million, according to Orange.

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In an official signing ceremony held in Amman, Jordan today, Zain and Palestinian Telecommunications Company (Paltel) have entered into an agreement for a share-for-share exchange, which will see Zain take a majority interest in Paltel with an equity shareholding of 56.53 per cent in exchange for Paltel owning 100 per cent of Zain Jordan. Paltel is a publicly-listed entity on the Palestinian Stock Exchange and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. The merger will set the current Paltel shareholders equity position in both Paltel and its newly acquired subsidiary, Zain Jordan at 41.43 per cent.

Left, Saad Al Barrak, CEO of Zain Group; right, Sabih Al-Masri, chairman of Paltel at the signing ceremony

The share-swap transaction involves an exchange of a total of 58.57 per cent of Paltel’s shares for 100 per cent of the shares of Pella Investment Company (Pella), the holding company of Jordan Mobile Telephone Services Company (Zain Jordan). Zain’s equity in Pella, at 96.516 per cent, will be exchanged for 56.53 per cent of Paltel’s equity whilst the balance of equity held by the other shareholder in Pella, 3.484 per cent, will be exchanged for 2.04 per cent of Paltel. Paltel will own 100 per cent of the shares of Pella, and its underlying subsidiary, Zain Jordan.

Through this transaction, Palestine will become the 24^th territory in which Zain will have a commercial footprint. The mobile operation in Palestine currently known as ‘Jawwal’ will be rebranded to Zain by the end of this year. This mobile operation will also join Zain’s ‘One Network’ platform, bringing to 19 the number of countries that benefit from the roaming offering.

The combination of both Zain Jordan and Paltel will produce a business group that will generate over US$1 billion in revenues, US$450 million in EBITDA and US$300 million in net income in 2009.

“A merger of this nature, with immediate opportunities for synergies between the two leading operators in Jordan and Palestine, will create substantial value for shareholders and enable us to create a strong operating platform for our businesses in the Levant and beyond,” said Saad Al-Barrak, CEO of Zain Group.

Paltel has a base of 1.5 million active mobile customers and over 363,000 fixed line customers, as well as approx 78,000 ADSL customers as of March 31, 2009. Zain Jordan counts over 2.35 million active mobile customers.

Egypt’s sole fixed-line operator, Telecom Egypt, saw first quarter profits to end-March surge 72 per cent year-on-year due to its 44.95 per cent stake in mobile provider Vodafone Egypt. The state-owned operator today reported profit of EGP961 million (US$171 million), with the Vodafone business contributing EGP350 million.

Vodafone contributed a significant amount to Telecom Egypt’s profitability in Q109

“Telecom Egypt continues to benefit from its investment in Vodafone Egypt, which has increased its customer base by 35 per cent and total voice minutes by 36 per cent year-on-year,” company chairman and CEO Akil Beshir said in a statement.

Consolidated revenues increased by six per cent over the period to EGP2.5 billion, with wholesale revenues growing 11 per cent to EGP1.05 billion and accounting for 42 per cent of the company’s total revenues.

Beshir stated Telecom Egypt is still on the hunt for an acquisition in the Middle East and North Africa region, and preferably one that is an integrated mobile and fixed-line player. The operator currently holds a cash balance of EGP1.8 billion with a net debt of EGP2 billion.

“We aren’t in a net cash position yet, we still have debts but our debt to EBITDA is very low, which means we have room to raise cash,” Beshir told press.