Orascom Telecom Holding Advances After Shareholders OK Split

Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, North Africa’s biggest mobile network operator, headed for the biggest gain in more than a week after shareholders approved splitting the company in two entities.

Shares of the Cairo-based company increased 1.6 percent to 3.23 Egyptian pounds at 11:05 a.m. in Cairo, poised for the biggest daily gain since Oct. 13. The benchmark EGX 30 Index declined 0.4.

Orascom’s shareholders approved the company’s split in two into Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E. and Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding S.A.E. The split facilitates a merger with Russia’s VimpelCom Ltd.

Egypt’s bourse had canceled the first trade on the company’s shares today because of a “procedural error,” bourse spokesman Hisham Turk said by telephone.