Egypt-based Orascom has been the primary source of cash for Globalive Wireless, one of Canada’s AWS new entrants. Its deep pockets enabled Globalive to bid more than $400M to acquire 10 MHz of spectrum everywhere in Canada other than Quebec.
While it has received approval of its ownership structure from Industry Canada, the CRTC still has to authorize it as a carrier under the Telecom Act, a process that is attracting considerable attention.
McCarthy Tetrault has recently published an analysis of the proceeding to determine the process for public review (what we call “a recursive proceeding“).
Of interest is news of the current battle that Orascom is engaged in for ownership and control of the largest mobile operator in its home market, ECMS. France Telecom, the partner in the joint venture’s holding company, Mobinil, has been trying to buy out Orascom’s interest, in a dispute that has dragged out for a couple years now.
Egypt’s securities market regulator has recently supported the “home team” in ruling that France Telecom was not offering minority shareholders enough. Last week, observers had expected the regulator to approve the offer. See Global Insight analysis.
What kind of pre-nuptial agreements are in place for Orascom’s venture in Canada?