Algeria’s government will not allow Egyptian operator Orascom Telecom to sell its Algerian mobile phone business Djezzy to South African group MTN, Algeria’s trade minister said.
"The Algerian state holds to its right of pre-emption over the sale of Djezzy … and will not allow its purchase by the South African firm MTN," trade minister Hachemi Djaaboub said in comments carried by official news agency APS on Wednesday.
South Africa’s deputy trade minister, visiting Algeria this week, called on Algeria to ease the way for MTN to acquire Djezzy, according to a financial source present at a meeting between the two governments.
