Telecom Egypt (TE) has secured permission from its board of directors for an investment of US$90 million towards its acquisition of Middle East and North Africa Submarine Cable (MENA Cable) system, a subsidiary of Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding S.A.E, two months after it revealed that it wished to channel part of the 2017 dividend into the project. In communication to investors the company stated, "The board of directors approved the acquisition of Middle East and North Africa Submarine Cable (MENA Cable) by a 50% owned subsidiary (Egyptian International Submarine Cables Company) with a total enterprise value of USD 90 million to be financed through a shareholder loan from Telecom Egypt." MENA Cable connects Europe to the Middle East and Southeast Asia through North Africa and the Middle East. The MENA Cable system stretches 9, 030 km of which 930km is terrestrial fibre crossing Egypt and consists of six fibre pairs, each pair expandable to 8 TB/s with a total capacity of 48 TB/s. 900 million in credit facilitiesAlong with its approval of the MENA Cable deal, the TE board passed a second resolution for the telco to obtain USD credit facilities.

Source: The North Africa Journal May 14, 2018 10:41 UTC