A commission chosen by Algeria will start evaluating next month how much Algeria should pay to acquire the local unit of Egyptian operator Orascom Telecom, an Algerian newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Orascom Telecom and its shareholders are eager to see signs of progress after months of deadlock over the future of the unit — the company’s biggest single source of revenue — that has been weighing on its share price.
El Khabar newspaper, quoting an unnamed senior government source, said the commission is to be headed by an Algerian financial expert, will start work in the second week of September, and will report its findings within two months.
The newspaper identified the head of the commission as Haji Ali Mohammad, who it said was head of a private Algerian financial services firm.
It said he would be working with other financial specialists, but did not identify them of say whether they were Algerians or foreigners.
An official with the Algerian finance ministry, which has been closely involved in the Orascom Telecom case, declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
The future of Orascom Telecom’s Algerian unit, which trades under the name Djezzy, has been in doubt for nearly a year.
The Algerian government hit the unit with back-tax demands and barred it from moving cash abroad. It then blocked Orascom Telecom from selling Djezzy to South Africa’s MTN, saying it has the right of first refusal on the unit.
The Egyptian firm subsequently agreed to negotiate the sale of Djezzy to the Algerian state, but for months there has been no evidence of progress towards a sale and no clarity on how the sale price will be fixed.
