The Cairo government owns an 80% stake in Telecom Egypt, and the reason for the removal of El-Nawawy – who has led the company for approximately three years – remains unclear.
Sources have confirmed to Reuters that Yasin will be El-Nawawy’s successor, and former telecoms minister Mohamed Salem will take on the role of company chairman.
Telecom Egypt has been working towards the acquisition of a unified mobile and fixed-line telecoms licence, and concerns have now been raised over what the company’s new management will be focussed on.
“The current management still seems interested in going forward with the mobile licence,” Allen Sandeep, head of research at NAEEM Brokerage, told reporters.
“With the new management in place, we’ll have to wait and watch whether this would remain intact.”
In January this year, Telecom Egypt signed wholesale network deals with Vodafone and Mobinil, worth a combined €1.77 billion.
