The two main shareholders in Egyptian mobile operator Mobinil traded accusations in the media on Thursday in their increasingly acrimonious row over ownership of the operator.In separate interviews published in Egyptian newspapers, a France Telecom executive questioned the neutrality of Egypt's market regulator in the matter, while Orascom Telecom's chairman said it would not give up its Mobinil stake without exhausting all legal avenues.
FT and OT disagree over the implementation of an agreement they signed in August 2001 as partners in the holding company that has their stake in Mobinil.
The International Court of Arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce in Geneva ruled in April that FT must buy OT's 28.75 percent stake in the holding company at a price of 273.26 Egyptian pounds ($48.80) per share.
The two sides are now at loggerheads over what happens to other shares in the company and the price FT must pay for them.
"I am very surprised at the strange position of the Capital Market Authority (CMA) and I'm starting to doubt its leanings," FT's head of international operations, Jean-Yves Larrouturou, told the independent al-Shorouk daily.
Egyptian regulator CMA has twice rejected FT offers for outstanding shares since the arbitration court's ruling, which has not yet been implemented.
OT's Naguib Sawiris told state-run al-Ahram newspaper that OT would use "the legal framework and all legal means available to us" to retain its holdings in Mobinil.
Orascom said on May 19 that it had appealed the sale of Mobinil shares because FT had not met sale conditions.
"I am the one who got the licence, I am the one who built the company. It is true that France Telecom was a part, but this company is my start and this is my country, and I will not give it up even if the struggle lasts for years to come," Sawiris told the newspaper.
OPPOSING SIDES"We have documents to prove we went to the stock exchange during the legal period mentioned in the ruling with all our documents to execute (the ruling)" and FT did not send their broker, Sawiris said.
FT's Larrouturou said Sawiris had given FT two unattractive choices: raise the price offered for minority shares or start over with a 50-50 partnership in the holding company.
"It is as if he wanted to kick us out of the country, and this is unacceptable," he said, adding that the regulator appeared to be siding with the Arab operator.