State-owned Telecom Egypt has debunked all speculations that it could sell its stake in Vodafone Egypt, according to media reports.
Currently, Telecom Egypt holds a 45 percent stake in Vodafone Egypt. The remaining 55 percent is being held by Vodafone Group.
Over the last one year, speculations mounted that Telecom Egypt could sell its stake in Vodafone Egypt.
It was also reported that Saudi Arabia telecom giant STC has shown interest in Telecom Egypt’s stake in Vodafone. However, the carrier has clarified that it has not had any communication with any parties with regard to its stake in Vodafone.
Telecom Egypt reported that its net profit for the first nine months of 2019 was E£3.2 billion, a decrease when compared to the E£3.5 billion it made during the same period in 2018.
According to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Egypt added 357,700 new mobile subscribers last October, bringing the total number of subscribers from 94.8 million in September to 95.2 million.
The Ministry further revealed that Telecom Egypt lost around 100,000 subscribers during the same period, as its total number of subscribers declined from 20 million in September to 19.9 million in October.
Reportedly, Vodafone added around 230,000 subscribers during the same period. This brought Vodafone’s total number of subscribers from 39.9 million in September to 40.2 million subscribers.
The market added 140,000 new subscribers in the month of September.
Last year, the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) fined Vodafone Egypt E£10 million, due to an interruption of telecommunications services for several hours across different areas in Egypt.