Orascom says all options open on Hutch Essar

LONDON, Jan 24 (Reuters) Egypt's Orascom Telecom said on Wednesday it had not ruled out joining the bidding race for Indian mobile phone group Hutchison Essar.

However, Chief Financial Officer Aldo Mareuse told Reuters that if Orascom was to join the bid battle, it would probably look to buy Hutch Essar's parent company, Hutchison Telecommunications International (HTIL), in which Orascom owns a 19 percent stake.

''We could do it at the Hutch Essar level,'' he said in an interview on the sidelines of a telecoms conference. ''But it's probably more interesting to do it at the HTIL level. Frankly speaking, it's the same, because 80 percent of HTIL's value is from Hutchison Essar.'' ''We're keeping all options open,'' Mareuse added. ''We could buy it (Hutch Essar) or sell it (the stake in HTIL). Depends on the price.'' Britain's Vodafone Group Plc and Indian groups Reliance Communications, Essar and Hinduja have all expressed an interest in buying Hutch Essar, which is majority owned by HTIL.

Mareuse also said Orascom would not press ahead with an initial public offering of Weather Investments, through which it controls Italian mobile operator Wind, if Orascom remained undervalued.

''We don't need to do an IPO. If the value is not there, we won't do it,'' he said.

REUTERS PKS RAI2055