UTL Clarifies Orascom Telecom Sale Of 80% Stake

By Steven Odeu THE management of Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL) has said the decision by Orascom Telecom, the Egyptian mobile operator, to sell its 80% stake in the sub-Saharan African subsidiary, Telecel, will not affect the operations of Uganda’s UTL Telecel mobile phone service providers. Orascom owns shares in Telecel which is the majority shareholder of the 51% UTL Telecom shares owned by the Ucom consortium. Orascom which recently acquired a US$750m licence to operate in Algeria gave a possibility of selling more of their shares on public market or divest its 80% shares in Telecel as a means of raising funds. UTL Acting Managing Director Aimable Mpore said Orascom gave this as a possibility but has not yet sold the shares. He said, “There is no link between Orascom decisions about selling their shares in Telecel on UTL. It will not affect the operations of the consortium in Uganda, because Orascom bought shares in Telecel in February last year and Ucom consortium bought UTL 51% shares in June.” Ends