Algeria warns against the buying of Orascom shares.

The Algerian government has expressed its firm opposition to the transaction project related to the OTA Company, between MTN and Orascom, stressing that any total or partial transfer of assets of Orascom to the South African MTN Company is legally null and void.  

• The Algerian authorities have meanwhile threatened the Egyptian Company with a withdrawal of the mobile telephony license it has been exploiting since 2002.
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• This was announced yesterday in a press release issued in Algiers by the Ministry of posts, information technologies and communication which said that any transaction regarding OTA should be in keeping with the Algerian legislation pertaining to foreign investments and the texts governing the mobile telephony license granted to OTA.
• Clarifications to this effect were directly forwarded to MTN.
•  The Algerian authorities will not remain idle in the face of any drift or conclusion of any contract by Orascom which will not be in strict conformity with the Algerian laws and regulations, said the communiqué.
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• Any attempt to circumvent this decision will lead to the expropriation of the current shareholders of OTA and any operation of transfer of funds overseas will be frozen until the cleansing of the fiscal situation of OTA and the clarification of its future with the present shareholders, the Ministry’s press release said.
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