Rabat - French telecoms operator Orange is planning to sell shares in its Egyptian unit Mobinil to bring in new investors and increase its stake in Meditel.
Chief Executive Stephane Richard told Reuters that Egyptian mobile telecoms operator Mobinil, which is 99 per cent owned by Orange, would offer 10 to 15 per cent of its shares on the Cairo bourse or sell a stake to a local partner in 2016.
Richard also said that Orange would increase its stake in its Moroccan subsidiary Meditel to 49 per cent from 40 per cent as soon as possible.
The company's strategy has been to create a separate unit to regroup the African and Middle Eastern operations to make them more visible to investors and to run them more efficiently.
According to Reuters, Chief Executive Stephane Richard sees Africa and the Middle East as key to the French company's growth, especially since it sold its mobile operations in Britain and Switzerland.
Orange has about 100 million subscribers in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal and Mali among other countries, and they brought in nearly 10 per cent of group sales last year.
Their revenues rose by 7 per cent to reach 4.29 billion euro on operating profit of 1.4 billion euros.
"I am thinking of Tunisia. I am thinking of Morocco, for instance. So there is an organic growth which is still an engine for us," Richard said. "We will try to be very active including in terms of M&A to expand our footprint in Africa."
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