Mobinil, which leads the Egyptian mobile market by subscriber numbers, is considering borrowing as much as 2 billion Egyptian pounds ($347 million) to finance expansion of its network and services, a newspaper said.

The size of the loan depends on market conditions as well as talks with Commercial International Bank (CIB) and state-owned National Bank of Egypt, al-Mal newspaper reported, citing the firm's chief executive officer, Hassan Kabbani.

The central bank has blocked Mobinil, jointly owned by France Telecom and Orascom Telecom, from further bank borrowing because its creditor banks have reached the limit they can lend to any one client.

When calculating single client loans, the central bank also takes the loans of Orascom Telecom into consideration because Orascom owns part of Mobinil.

Al-Mal quoted Kabbani as saying Mobinil had asked the two banks to seek an exception for the firm because Mobinil had incorporated its financial accounts into those of its other major shareholder, France Telecom.

Mobinil had no immediate comment on the report.

Mobinil's chief executive said in September the firm was considering issuing bonds worth 1 billion pounds. The firm issued 1.5 billion pounds in bonds in January.-Reuters