Orascom Confirms Talks With Vimpelcom Are On

Orascom Telecom's Executive Chairman Naguib Sawiris has confirmed previous press reports that his holding company Weather Investments is in talks with Russia’s Vimpelcom over possible merger plans involving assets including Weather’s controlling stakes in the Egypt-based Orascom group and Italy’s Wind. Whilst talking to press on a visit to Orascom’s Canadian subsidiary Globalive Wireless (Wind Mobile), the Egyptian entrepreneur also confirmed that he was open to discussions with any potential strategic international partner for Weather/Orascom, Canadian paper the Global & Mail reported. Sawiris said: ‘We are not only talking to [Vimpelcom], we are talking to anybody ... We have two things on our agenda right now – solving the Algerian issue [where the local government wants to block attempts to sell Orascom’s mobile unit Djezzy] and, second, finding a good partner for the group.’ He also declared it was possible that Wind Mobile could eventually acquire other Canadian cellular start-ups such as Mobilicity and Public Mobile.

Orascom Atributes Q3 Loss to Forex

Egyptian telecoms group Orascom Telecom has revealed a net loss for the three-month period ended 30 June 2010 on the back of unrealised foreign exchange losses.

In the second quarter of its 2010 fiscal year the company posted a net loss after minority interests of USD66.1 million, reporting that forex losses in the three-month period were USD120 million; by comparison, in the same period a year earlier Orascom posted a net profit of USD111.8 million.

The Egyptian company also noted that impairment charges in Algeria and start-up losses attributed to its Canadian operations had both impacted on the bottom line.

Revenues however fared better, with Orascom generating turnover of USD1.058 billion in 2Q10 compared with USD990.6 million a year earlier, a 7% year-on-year increase, although monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) continued to decline across all regions of operation.

In the three-month period Orascom reported that global ARPU was USD5, down 16.7% y-o-y, with Lebanon-based Alfa ad Egyptian cellco MobiNil reporting the largest declines, of 25% and 22.9% respectively.

In operational terms, Orascom saw subscriber growth at every one of its subsidiaries in the quarter, with the group’s total wireless customer base standing at 99.079 million at end-June 2010. Mobilink, Orascom’s Pakistani unit, remains its largest by subscribers, with the subsidiary adding just over 630,000 customers in the three months to 30 June 2010 to bring its total to 32.302 million.

In its home country meanwhile MobiNil, which accounts for the second largest number of Orascom’s total customers, reported 26.147 million subscribers at the end of the first half of 2010, up just 0.1% y-o-y, with the slowing growth attributed to new regulations and the shortage of new numbers.

Zain Launches International Top-Up Service

Zain has unveiled an International Airtime top up service that will enable people living in Europe, USA, and Canada to purchase Zain airtime for friends and family living in countries where Zain operates.

The new service is now live 'to Kenya' with further roll-outs to Uganda and Tanzania, and other countries planned over the coming months. Those using the service will be able to top-up each specified mobile phone with defined airtime values ranging from Kshs 1500 to 3500. Top up will be through credit cards which are functional in the 16 participating countries.

The service will be accessed online through the Zain website. "To buy a top up, users will be required to register on the website and select up to three numbers which they may directly send airtime to," said Rene Meza, Zain Kenya Managing Director. With 30 million members of the African diaspora currently contributing approx $40 billion annually in remittances to Africa, Zain and Mi-Pay anticipate high demand for the service.

Under the contract, Mi-Pay is providing Zain with full-service delivery which includes Zain branded front-end web designs; settlement and reconciliation; merchant acquisition; and system monitoring and reporting.

"We operate in many prime remittance corridors where people living in rural and remote regions rely on family and friends abroad for additional financial support," said Chris Gabriel, CEO, Zain Africa. "We believe this international top-up service will provide a new way to channel this support through the provision of airtime. We chose Mi-Pay, because of its proven expertise and capability," he added.

The scalable and flexible solution will allow Zain to quickly create, implement and roll-out the international top-up facility; creating valuable new revenue streams and vital new services for its customers. Norman Frankel, CEO of Mi-Pay said: "We are delighted that Zain has agreed to work with Mi-Pay on an exclusive basis, using our International Airtime platform to deliver remote airtime top-up. Given the high numbers of Africans now living abroad and their desire to ensure contacts at home have access to crucial mobile communications, we believe this will prove a popular service. Our world class platform is designed to accommodate rapid growth allowing us to 'go-live' in both recipient and sending countries in quick succession - with minimal cost and risk to Zain."

The service is now live and available from the following 16 key sending countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America.

Zain to Relinquish its 35% Stake In TTCL

Zain Tanzania is to give up its 35% equity stake in state-backed national PTO Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL), according to Reuters quoting the nation's minister for technology as saying. 'Recently, Celtel has shown interest in exiting. But there's need for consultation before that happens,' said Peter Msolla, Tanzania's minister for communications, science and technology.

Mr. Msolla's comments came during a budget presentation to the national Assembly in Dodoma. The cellco was originally known as Celtel when Netherlands-based Celtel International bought a stake in TTCL in 2004; the Tanzanian government retained the original name in its records. The minister went on to say that in a meeting last week to discuss firms owning shares in state-run corporations on the government's behalf, Zain, TTCL and Consolidated Holdings Corp discussed the redistribution of state assets. 'In principle, they have agreed to end the partnership and Celtel exits.

Celtel's 35% shareholding will revert to the government. We will continue talks on how to offload those shares,' Msolla said. The government holds the other 65% of TTCL, while only last week it said it had reached an agreement with SaskTel International, a subsidiary of Canada's SaskTel, to end a three-year contract to manage TTCL. The contract, brokered in 2007, was worth up to USD5 million.