Egypt's Orascom Telecom swung to an unexpected net loss of $41.4 million in the second quarter of 2010, with revenues from its Algerian unit down from a year ago. The Cairo-based international mobile network operator said on Thursday its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was $441.3 million, and its revenue was $1.06 billion in the second quarter.
The results were issued after Russian newspaper Kommersant reported telecoms group Vimpelcom Ltd might buy Italy's No 3 mobile operator Wind and 51 percent of Egypt's Orascom Telecom from tycoon Naguib Sawiris. A poll of eight analysts had predicted, on average, that Orascom would make a profit of $70.2 million in the quarter. The company previously reported a net profit of $111.8 million in the second quarter of 2009.
Revenues from Orascom's Algerian unit Djezzy were $436.5 million in the second quarter of 2010, down from a previously stated $478.9 million in the same quarter a year earlier, but up almost 6 percent from the first quarter. Performance at Djezzy, its main revenue earner, had been expected to suffer under tightening regulatory pressure from the Algerian government, which also hit the company with a $597 million back-tax bill last year.
Stung by that bill and other hurdles, Orascom tried to sell the unit to South Africa's MTN this year, but Algeria blocked the deal, citing a law it said gave it the right to buy the unit before any foreign bidder. Orascom, which has a presence in countries from Pakistan to Canada, had previously reported a $49 million profit in the first quarter of 2010 and a net loss of $46.4 million in the last quarter of 2009.
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