Algeria’s government has confirmed it would not allow Egyptian group Orascom Telecom to sell its Algerian mobile phone unit Djezzy to South Africa’s MTN.
MTN shares in Johannesburg rallied on the news, with traders responding to concerns that MTN could have diluted its value by going ahead with the acquisition.

South African officials earlier this week used a visit to Algiers by South Africa president Jacob Zuma to ask the Algerian authorities to let MTN establish a presence in the North African market by buying Djezzy.

Algeria’s government is blocking the Egyptian firm from selling the unit to MTN, a central component in a broader deal that included Orascom Telecom’s other assets in Africa.

“The Algerian state holds to its right of pre-emption over the sale of Djezzy … and will not allow its purchase by the South African firm MTN,” trade minister Hachemi Djaaboub was quoted as saying by Algeria’s official APS news agency.
Algeria blocked the Djezzy sale last month and said it wanted to buy the business, dealing a blow to MTN’s plans to buy all or part of Orascom Telecom’s activities.

France Telecom chief financial officer, Gervais Pellissier said the company is looking for medium-sized acquisitions in emerging markets, adding that some could be announced in the coming months.

“I can’t tell you the names of the countries we are working on. There will be a few more acquisitions on the African, Middle East footprint in the next couple of months,” Pellissier commented at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in Paris recently.

Pellissier added that if Indian telecom operator Bharti wanted to sell some of the Africa assets it recently acquired from Zain, then France Telecom could be interested in them.

Qtel announced today the successful closing of the General Syndication phase of its new US$2 billion dual tranche revolving credit facility. During the phase, 17 additional banks joined with commitments of US$1.11 billion, bringing the total subscribed amount to US$3.86 billion. This has substantially exceeded the original target of US$1.5 billion.

The facility will be used for general corporate purposes including the refinancing of an existing US$2 billion Forward Start Facility.

The facility was arranged by the following banks: BNP Paribas, DBS Bank Ltd, Qatar National Bank SAQ, Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking and The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (together the "Bookrunners"). Qatar National Bank acted as the General Financial Adviser to Qtel.

This is the first syndicated corporate loan deal with a five year tenor to be completed since September 2008 in the GCC region, according to the operator.

South Africa’s Vodacom saw 5.6 per cent growth across its consolidated group service revenues during the first quarter of this year reaching ZAR 58.5 billion (US$7.75 billion). However, net profits declined drastically in the 12 months ending March, declining 32.2 per cent to ZAR 4.2 billion, from ZAR 6.192 in the previous year.

During Q1 2010, group traffic increased 11.3 per cent aided by a drop in tariffs across the board, while group subscribers increased 0.7 per cent during the quarter to 40 million.

The South African law requiring registration of SIM cards negatively impacted Vodacom’s local subscriber base, with numbers in its home market declining 4.9 per cent from 27.6 million to 26.3 million.

“Customers in all of our markets have felt the effects of still fragile economic conditions and we have responded by increasing the value delivered to customers, made possible through cost containment measures taken across the Group,” commented Pieter Uys, Vodacom Group CEO.

“We reduced prices in all markets, expanded our data business and delivered strong growth in free cash flow. Our strengthened financial position supports an increase in our dividend payout to shareholders,” Uys added.

France Telecom has said it is considering purchasing a minority stake of an unidentified Iraqi mobile operator, as it looks to expand further into the Middle East and Africa.

"France Telecom is looking at the matter of a mobile operator in Iraq but there are no plans to take control in the short-term," a France Telecom spokesman told the Wall Street Journal.

The company said earlier it plans to double its revenues from emerging markets within the next five years.

Currently there are three operators in Iraq – Zain, Qtel subsidiary Asiacell and Korek. Korek holds a national licence, however its coverage is limited to mainly the northern part of the country and has long needed outside investment to fund network expansion.

Korek is the most obvious target for a cash injection, however, the UAE’s Etisalat announced in February that it was close to finalising a deal to secure a majority stake in the Iraqi operator with no further updates. Etisalat had been in discussions with Korek since September 2008.