By Mahmoud Kassem
May 16 (Bloomberg) -- Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, the biggest mobile phone company in the Middle East, is still interested in buying the 32 percent stake in Morocco’s Meditelecom that Portugal Telecom SPGS SA is selling.
The Cairo-based company would also consider purchasing Telefonica SA of Spain’s stake in Meditelecom if it were offered, Orascom Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Naguib Sawiris said in an interview at the Dead Sea in Jordan today. “Yes, we would be interested,” he said.
Phone companies in the Middle East are expanding outside their home markets as local demand growth slows and competition increases. Orascom Telecom became the first mobile-phone company to invest in North Korea after Sawiris signed a contract with the communist state’s government in Pyongyang in December.
Emirates Telecommunications Corp., the United Arab Emirates’ biggest phone company, is also interested in bidding for the stake, Chairman Mohammed Omran said yesterday. “It is still in its early stages; there are several telecom operators competing for” the stake, Omran said.
Sawiris said there were no developments in Orascom Telecom’s dispute with France Telecom SA over ownership of the Egyptian Co. for Mobile Services.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mahmoud Kassem at Dead Sea, Jordan at
mkassem1@bloomberg.net Orascom Telecom Still in Race for Morocco?s Meditel (Update1) - Bloomberg.com 
Orascom Telecom Still in Race for Morocco’s Meditel (Update1) 
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