No intention of selling Syriatel shares, Mr Makhlouf says

During his company's annual shareholders meeting, Mr Makhlouf, who was widely reported to be in negotiations to sell his majority stake in Syria's largest privately-held company, said: 'at the moment, I have no intention of (selling my shares), although this could take place in the future,' according to remarks published in Al-Iqtissadiya, a business weekly. 'As to date, the matter is not very clear,' he added.

Last December, Turkcell, a Turkish GSM operator, announced that it had started negotiations to buy a majority stake in Syriatel from Mr Makhlouf.

However, the Turkish company is reportedly under strong pressure from the US Administration, which bans American individuals and corporations from dealing with Mr Makhlouf on the ground that he is involved in 'public corruption and misuse of public assets'. Mr Makhlouf strongly denied the charges saying that they were 'part of a political ploy aimed at undermining high-ranking officials'.

Several shareholders and members of the board of Turkcell hold American passports.

In separate remarks, Mr Makhlouf also said that Syriatel was preparing for the added competition that should follow the introduction of a third GSM operator in the market. According to the BOT contracts signed between Syriatel and MTN on the one side and the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment, who holds regulatory authority over the market, on the second, a third mobile phone company can enter the market starting this year.

Syriatel plans to add 1 million new subscribers to its phone services in 2008, from 3.342 million at the end of last year, and to increase the number of subscribers to its newly introduced Internet broadband service to 7,500 by the end of 2008.

Syriatel, Syria's largest mobile phone operator, had total sales of SYP 39.39 billion (USD 820.7 million) in 2007 and net profits of SYP 6.677 billion.