Egyptian telecoms giant Orascom has confirmed its interest in bidding for France Telecom’s (FT) Swiss and Austrian units, reports Swiss weekly SonntagsZeitung. Samih Sawiris, the CEO of Orascom Development Holding, and brother of Naguib Sawiris, the chairman of Orascom Telecom told the paper: ‘I can confirm that my brother plans to expand in Switzerland and Austria.’
As previously reported by CommsUpdate, France Telecom is pre-arranging a financing package for the winning bidder for Orange Switzerland. It expects the sale of its Swiss arm to fetch around EUR1.5 billion (USD2.08 billion) at auction.