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France Telecom announced that it would pay a global settlement fee of $300 million to Orascom Telecom Holding. This was because it was a part of their agreement on the Egyptian telecom operator, Mobinil. This finally concluded a prolonged dispute between the two major telecom companies.
This settlement fee is also supposed to be a part of the agreement that both companies presented in front of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority. According to officials from France Telecom, this fee will only be payable when a restated and amended shareholders’ agreement will come into power.
Earlier this summer, Orascom and France Telecom announced that they had managed to end a 3 year long dispute which had involved both the Egyptian court and the International Arbitration Court.
This agreement doesn’t in anyway change the contemporary ownership structure. In the contemporary structure ECMS is owned 51% by Mobinil. Mobinil is owned 71.25% by France Telecom and 28.75% by Orascom. 20% of ECMS is also directly owned by Orascom Telecom.
Orascom and France Telecom will stay partners for Mobinil even under the clauses of this new agreement. However, France Telecom will fuse 100% of the results of ECMS after the last agreement is signed compared to only about 70% prior to the agreement.
In a press statement released by France Telecom, it said that both the parties have agreed not to transfer any of the shares that they own in Mobinil to each other. They also agreed that Orascom won’t try to raise its current 20% stake in the company, ECMS.
Both the groups also went on to agree that Orascom would be given some put options for its current 28.75% stake in Mobinil and also for its current stake in ECMS.
Orascom will get an opportunity to sell its ECMS and Mobinil shares from the 15th of September to the 15th of November in the year 2012 as well as 2013.
