Word: orascom
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...defunct Coalition Provisional Authority - expire on Dec. 22. Transparency is the watchword, says Siyamend Othman, CEO of the NCMC. Hearings, he pledges, will be held on Iraqi television "and we will be asking some tough questions to each bidder." Two years ago Egypt's Orascom Telecom, Kuwait's MTC Atheer and the Iraqi-Gulf consortium AsiaCell got the prizes, but potential bidders acknowledge the cost will be "way more" than the $3.5 million spent in 2003. So how much money is the NCMC looking for? The Iraqis, one insider told Time, want "as much as they can get." - By Maryann...
...Arafat twice, once in 2000 on the eve of the failed Middle East peace summit at Camp David: "I went away from that meeting and told my father: 'This man is not going to sign anything at the summit.'" But Arafat did approve a sizable investment in Orascom. The Palestinians partnered with Orascom in Algeria and Tunisia; when the firm ran into trouble, they exchanged some of its debt for equity. In all, the Palestinians invested about $200 million in Orascom - at one point, the official Palestine Investment Fund owned 9% of the company and had a seat...
...Since getting back on its feet, Orascom has jettisoned its activities in some markets, including Chad and Ivory Coast, and concentrated its efforts on a handful of key nations. Top of the list is Algeria, where it has over 70% of the market. But the firm also has 5 million customers in Pakistan. Last year, the company generated over $1 billion in earnings before interest, dividends and amortization - more than double the total for 2003. Sawiris still sees plenty of opportunity to grow his business in the Middle East, but these days his appetite seems bigger. The Wind deal involves...
...Moreover, for a man who has focused on bringing basic phone services to developing countries, it's hard to see the attraction of Italy, a wealthy nation saturated with phones. Orascom's concept "is one of high growth in underpenetrated, low-income markets in the emerging world. Extending that footprint into mature, competitive developed markets changes the investment case in our view," frets István Máté-Tóth, analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston, in a research note...
...which lags far behind its two Italian competitors, TIM and Vodafone, in the amount of revenue it derives from each customer. But Sawiris says he's expecting a continuing consolidation of the mobile-phone industry, and is trying to position himself for the future. For a time, Wind and Orascom would remain entirely separate entities. But the two operations could eventually be put together. "My vision in five or eight years is that my company will have achieved most of its growth and will become more or less a utility, and therefore won't have the same excitement for investors...