Ahram Online

The $3.7 billion offer from a Cyprus-based firm owned by Altimo is at a price of $0.70 per share for all of Orascom Telecom's 5.245 billion shares, the statement said.

"The authority is currently studying the announced offer," the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority said in a statement.

Orascom Telecom is the third large firm that is taking steps to leave the Egyptian market this year. In February, Egypt's regulator approved an offer by Qatar National Bank to acquire Cairo's National Societe General Bank.

Shares in Telecom Italia fall 1 per cent in early trading after Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris put on the table a 3-billion-euro ($3.89 billion) capital hike.

Sawiris told Reuters that he proposed that the capital increase be open to all shareholders, not just himself, and that it should be conducted around the current market price of 0.70 euros per share.

That is likely to draw the ire of other Telecom Italia shareholders, including Spain's Telefonica and the three Italian financial institutions who together own 22.4 per cent via an unlisted holding company called Telco.

Egypt's ministry of communications has sent a request to France Telecom directing it to ensure that 15 per cent of the shares of mobile phone carrier Mobinil are publicly traded or owned by Egyptian investors.

France Telecom currently owns 94 per cent of Mobinil. Earlier this year, France Telecom bought most Mobinil shares it did not already own from its local venture partner, Naguib Sawiris's Orascom Telecom Media and Technology (OTMT), leaving Orascom with 5 per cent of the shares.

The role of the internet and social media in the January 25 Revolution is undeniable; despite this, some observers believe that Twitter is isolated from the mainstream of Egyptian society and that tweets (Twitter posts) represent only a small segment of the population.

Only 27 million Egyptians have access to the internet, according to the latest official numbers, out of a population of nearly 83 million. According to a September report by the Dubai School of Government about social media in the Arab world, there are around 130,000 Egyptian Twitter users (“tweeps”).

Egypt could soon see a fourth mobile phone operator, with Telecom Egypt keen to obtain a licence that would let it lease infrastructure from other providers and offer its own call services. Another operator in Egypt's crowded mobile services market raises the prospect of greater competition and hence better deals for consumers.