France Telecom (FTE) has filed a complaint with the Egyptian market regulator on Sunday, over the rejection of its bids to buy minority stake in the country’s mobile group, Mobinil.

France Telecom and Egyptian operator Orascom both own stakes in Mobinil, the largest mobile operator in the Middle East by subscriber numbers.

France Telecom, with the aim of increasing its share of the business made bids but Orascom has refused to let go of its share of the operator at the price France Telecom has proposed.

The regulator has twice rejected France Telecom’s offers to buy all outstanding shares that are not owned by the holding company since an arbitration ruling on April 5 that directed FT to buy Orascom Telecom''s holding company stake at a price akin to 273.26 Egyptian pounds per share.

Earlier in May, FT said that some investors in the Egyptian Co. for Mobile Services agreed to sell more than 3 percent of the share capital in the Arab country’s biggest mobile-phone operator at 231 Egyptian pounds ($41) per share.

However, the regulator rejected the statement saying that FT has to bid for all remaining shares in the Egyptian Co. for Mobile Services if it wants to buy more than 2 percent of the company from the open market, Egypt.

“It is not allowed for any company that owns more than 33 percent of another company to buy more than 2 percent in 12 months unless it was through an obligatory tender offer for all shares,” said Khaled Seyam, the regulator’s deputy chairman.

Mobinil is 51 percent owned by a holding company in which FT has a 71.25 percent stake and OT has 28.75 percent. Separately, OT has a 20 percent direct stake.