VEON says aims to buy out Egypt's Global Telecom for $600m

5th February 2019 By: Reuters

Telecoms operator VEON Ltd said on Tuesday it intends to offer 5.30 Egyptian pounds ($0.3005) per share for the 42.3% of Cairo-listed Global Telecom Holding it does not already own.

The offer for the stake in Global, formerly known as Orascom, represents a 20% premium to its closing price on Monday and is worth $600 million.

VEON, based in Amsterdam, operates telecommunications companies in Russia and in developing countries in Asia and North Africa. It holds a 55.6% stake in Global, which operates the Djezzy network in Algeria, Mobilink in Pakistan and Sheba Telecom in Bangladesh.

VEON said in a statement it has not yet submitted the offer to Egyptian financial authorities and it would not comment further. It called off a previous attempt to buy out Global's assets in October.