Egypt's Orascom eyes French market -chief to paper

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Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:44am EDT

PARIS, July 20 (Reuters) - Egyptian telecoms operator Orascom (ORTE.CA), which is keen to invest in France, would be prepared to team up with one of the candidates for a fourth domestic 3G mobile phone licence, its chairman said in a newspaper interview.

"Yes, I would like to set foot in France... We are open to all sorts of scenarios: acquisitions, mergers, alliances, partnerships," Naguib Sawiris told French daily Le Figaro.

Sawiris said mid-sized players would find it difficult to compete with world giants such as Vodafone (VOD.L) or Telefonica (TEF.MC), which have the financial means to offer clients attractive roaming prices.

"Regional operators such as KPN (KPN.AS), Swisscom (SCMN.VX), Bouygues Telecom (BOUY.PA) are set to lose out if they do not regroup," he said.

Asked if Orascom could be interested in an alliance with one of the potential bidders for a fourth 3G mobile licence in France, he said: "We are open to everything. We are prepared to team up with one of the candidates for this licence,"

Asked if Orascom could team up with France's Iliad (ILD.PA), seen as the frontrunner for the upcoming auction, he said: "I do not know his plans." He was referring to Iliad's chief Xavier Niel. Sawiris also said the dispute between Orascom and France Telecom (FTE.PA) over shared ownership of Mobinil (EMOB.CA) had started to "hit" the Egyptian mobile phone operator.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Mike Nesbit, John Stonestreet)

((dominique.vidalon.reuters.com; +33 1 49495432; Reuters Messaging:dominique.vidalon.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: ORASCOM/

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