Egypt's Orascom Telecom (OT) more than doubled the number of its subscribers to over 30 million by the end of 2005 compared with a year earlier, the company said in a statement on Monday. OT said that the growth had come from its networks operating in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
"Our target is to reach 50 million subscribers by year end (2006)," OT Chairman Naguib Sawiris said in the statement. An OT spokesman said the company had about 14.5 million subscribers at the end of 2004 and said the increase had come from OT's existing operations rather than acquisitions.
In late December, the company said it had bought a 19.3 percent stake of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd's emerging markets phone unit for $1.3 billion in a deal that gives it exposure to new Asian markets.
Sawiris also heads Weather Investments, which agreed in May to buy Italian telecoms firm Wind. Sawiris said in October he was considering merging OT and Wind, but in November he said he no longer planned to merge the two companies. In December, Sawiris said he was considering a bid for Greece's third-largest mobile operator, TIM Hellas, through Weather Investments.
Comments
Comments are closed.