CAIRO – Egyptian telecommunications company Orascom Telecom Holding says its proposing to increase its voting stake in carrier Wind Mobile following changes which have eased Canada’s foreign investment rules.
This past March Industry Minister Christian Paradis said Ottawa would lift restrictions on foreign investment in firms with less than 10% of market share by revenue. Under the plan to be voted on next month by shareholders, Orascom would align its voting shares with its ownership stake by increase its voting shares to 65.08 per cent from 32.02 per cent.
The move is "purely an internal restructuring effected to simplify Wind Mobile's capital structure," said Wind in a statement. "The decision has no impact on how Wind Mobile operates in Canada – the shareholders' agreement remains in place and unchanged."
Lacavera said the move would also boost the confidence of Orascom investors ahead of the next federal spectrum auction. He added that he continues to pursue a strategic partnership agreement with Public Mobile and Mobilicity in which together they could purchase the 10 MHz of spectrum necessary to build an LTE network that can compete with the incumbents at next year's 700 MHz spectrum auction.
As of September 2012, Wind Mobile has more than 500,000 subscribers, surpassing MTS Mobility as the fifth largest Canadian mobile operator.
