"France Telecom", the French owner of "Orange", may invest up to 7 billion Euros (9.3 billion dollars) over the course of the next 5 years, in Africa and the Middle East, according to a statement by CEO Stephane Richard.
The investments are part of a plan to increase the company"s revenues from emerging markets.
Emerging markets currently account for about 3.3 billion euros of the company"s revenue, or around 7 percent of the total sales of 46 billion euros.
"Doubling our operations in five years would entail increasing our revenues by two billion Euros, by acquiring new licenses or assets, and another billion Euros of internal growth by the end of that period", said Richard.
Concerning acquisitions, Richard says that "France Telecom" is interested in covering the areas of Western Africa, a region in which it is already present in Cameroon, Senegal and Nigeria.