France Telecom chief executive Didier Lombard says the company is well positioned for further expansion into fast-growing African markets. In an interview with the Financial Times this morning – his first newspaper interview since France Telecom’s abandoned takeover of TeliaSonera earlier this year – Lombard said the group would return to its strategy of making small deals in high-growth emerging markets. “We are looking at all the African territories,” he said. France Telecom, which owns the Orange mobile brand, is currently present in 13 African countries, mostly in French-speaking western parts of the continent. The report notes that the group is now looking at ‘Anglophone’ countries such as Kenya, which France Telecom entered last year. However, Lombard ruled out the possibility of acquiring a large pan-African operator such as MTN or Orascom. According to a separate Bloomberg report, the Kenyan operation – known as Telkom Kenya and a joint-venture between France Telecom and the Kenyan government – will launch services this week, becoming the country’s third mobile operator.

Lombard also used his Financial Times interview to provide an upbeat assessment of France Telecom’s financial health. He said the group had been largely unaffected by the economic slowdown and was able to increase dividends to shareholders. He added that the free cash flow generated by the firm in 2008 would probably be “a little bit better” than the €7.8 billion it had originally forecast with the possibility that it could raise the ratio of free cash flow it returns to investors above its target of 45 percent.