Egypt-based Orascom Telecom said on Sunday it would seek shareholder approval to raise $800 million in a rights issue to strengthen its balance sheet.

'The proposed rights issue is intended to further strengthen the balance sheet and ensure (Orascom Telecom's) liquidity including financing needs for the group in the case where there is no immediate resolution of the tax dispute in Algeria,' Orascom said in an e-mailed statement. 

Meanwhile, Orascom Telecom's executive chairman said in remarks published on Sunday he would not bow to any pressure to sell his firm's stake in Mobinil, at the centre of row with France Telecom.

Naguib Sawiris made the comment to Al Gomhuria newspaper after the Egyptian regulator approved a bid from a unit of France Telecom to buy all of mobile phone operator Mobinil, in which Orascom and the French company are the main shareholders.

Orascom said it opposed the regulator's decision allowing France Telecom to buy all of Mobinil in a deal that, if implemented, could net Orascom more than $1.6 billion but remove it from its home turf.

'Mobinil is an Egyptian company employing thousands of Egyptians,' the newspaper quoted Sawiris as saying. The newspaper said he had told the daily: 'He will not sell it or let go of it no matter the pressures or the temptation.'  -Reuters