"The Qatar Investment Authority is negotiating with the government and Telecom Egypt to purchase a maximum 25% stake in Vodafone Egypt of the company's total 45% stake."
Telecom Egypt, the country's largest telecom operator, owns a 45% stake in Vodafone Egypt, while the Egyptian government owns 80% of Telecom Egypt's shares.
Telecom Egypt, the Egyptian Minister of Telecommunications or Vodafone Egypt did not respond. We were also unable to obtain comment from the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) despite repeated communication attempts.
Later in the day, Telecom Egypt said in a statement to the EGX that the company "has not received any official offers from any party in this regard and in the event that the company receives any official offers regarding its stake in Vodafone, it will examine and evaluate the offers in cooperation with its financial and legal advisors."
The stock exchange suspended trading on the company's shares for 10 minutes until the company's statement was reviewed, and as soon as the stock returned to trading, it jumped 10%.
Vodafone-owned Vodafone owns 55% of Vodafone Egypt.
The Qatar Wealth Fund holds stakes in some of the world's largest companies, including the London Stock Exchange Group, Volkswagen and Glencore.
Four mobile service companies operate in Egypt: Vodafone Egypt, a subsidiary of the British Vodafone Group, Orange Egypt, a subsidiary of France's Orange Group, Etisalat Misr, a subsidiary of Etisalat, and Telecom Egypt.
Telecom Egypt's stock on the Egyptian Stock Exchange closed at the end of Sunday's session at EGP 15.27, down 1.04%.
During the past months, many deals have been made to acquire Egyptian shares at low prices, in light of the decline in the market values of shares after the interest rate hike, and the decline in the value of the Egyptian pound to its lowest levels in about 5 years.
