Egypt’s Orascom sees largest daily gain in over a week

Shareholders of Africa’s biggest mobile network operator, the Orascom Telecom Holding have seen some big gains the past week after they decided to split the company into two entities.

The Cairo-based company saw their shares increase by 1.6 percent, placing each share at 3.23 Egyptian pounds. This gain, reported around 11:05 a.m. in Cairo, is their biggest gain since October 13.

The shareholders’ decision to split the company has been approved and the new companies shall be the Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E and Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding S.A.E. the split is meant to facilitate a merger with the Russian VimpelCom ltd.

According to Egypt’s bourse spokesman, Hisham Turk, they had cancelled the first trade involving the company’s shares citing “Procedural errors.”

Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E currently employs over 20,000 people and runs 11 gsm branches around the globe.