CAIRO, EGYPT: Telecom Egypt said on Tuesday it had bought the remaining 4.95 per cent of shares in its broadband subsidiary TE Data from three Egyptian banks, taking its ownership to 100 per cent.

"We expect the importance of this segment to grow further going forward and, as such, have taken advantage of the opportunity to establish full ownership of the business," chief executive officer Tarek Tantawy said in a statement.

TE Data's ADSL subscriber base grew 68 per cent to 572,000 at the end of September 2009 compared to the same period a year earlier. The company has a 61 percent share in Egypt's broadband market, the statement said.

The firm declined to say which banks it bought the shares from.