Little progress on Orascom, Djezzy row

It appears to be an almost never ending battle between Egypt’s Orascom Telecom and the Algerian government to resolve an impasse over the telecom giant’s subsidiary in the country, Djezzy.

According to OT Chairman Khaled Bichara, there may be some hope that a solution can be found, despite the ongoing troubles that have seen the Algerian government wanting to purchase the operator.

The dispute has been ongoing since 2009, after the Algerian government said the unit owed the country back taxes and was then submitted to increasing regulatory pressure, to which OT refused to acquiesce.

Many analysts have repeatedly said, since the ousting of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and a merger of the Orascom Telecom’s parent firm Wind Telecom and Russia’s Vimpelcom, that there should be maneuvering space for a deal to be reached.

“We see there may be an intention to arrive at a solution. We hope we are reading the situation correctly. But do we have any formal meetings or confirmed news? The truth is no,” Bichara told Al Arabiya television network.

Bichara replaced billionaire tycoon Naguib Sawiris as Orascom’s executive chairman this past week.

By Jonathan Terry