Orange-owner France Telecom is to take its battle for ownership of ECMS (Mobinil), Egypt’s largest mobile operator, to the country’s supreme court after having its appeal rejected by the local regulator, reports the Financial Times. A review panel at the regulator rejected an appeal by France Telecom after the French firm had three offers to buy-out the minority shareholders in ECMS rejected by the regulator due to them being deemed too low. “This decision confirms that there is a serious problem in Egypt with regards to the respect of both international law as well as established standards applied by stock exchanges across the world,” said a France Telecom spokesman.

France Telecom already owns 71.25 percent of the holding company (known as Mobinil) that controls 51 percent of ECMS, and was ordered by an arbitration court earlier this year to buy-out Orascom’s 28.75 percent share in the holding company at a set price of EGP273.26 per share. But the case centres on what happens to the remaining 49 percent shareholding, which includes a separate 20 percent Orascom holding and 29 percent free float. France Telecom has argued that its purchase of the minority ECMS shareholders is not covered by the arbitration court ruling, an argument rejected by Orascom and the Egyptian regulator, which has rejected three bids by France Telecom for the minority shares.