Qtel captures MENA
Qtel continues to reinforce its market position in the Mena region and South East Asia where major operations showed solid performance with the Group announcing strong revenue and profit growth for the nine months ended September 30, 2010.
The revenue growth reveals a 14.4% increase throughout the period. Net profit rose to US$659.28 million, showing an increase year-on-year of 3.7 percent. The company’s combined customer base remains healthy, positioned at 68.9 million. EBITDA performance also strengthened, increasing 15.1% year-on-year. EBITDA margin has also improved, closing the period at 48%.
According to Chairman of the Qtel Group, H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani, he is pleased with the consistent and positive progress Qtel has made as a Group. This period’s performance determines the ability to overcome challenges, capitalize on opportunities and deliver meaningful returns. He is also pleased to report solid growth for these first nine months of the period and an unbelievable positive response to our very successful bond issuances.
According to Qtel, it has continued to focus on its core strategy of maintaining its market leadership within the Qatar market, and enhancing its share of market value. The expansion of Qtel’s portfolio of new services and the successful completion of the first phase of a nationwide fibre-to-the-home programme have positioned Qtel to enjoy strong and sustainable returns moving forward. The reason for its growth is the steady increase in the number of subscribers. The customer base of Indosat has grown to 40.4 million till the quarter’s end.
Wataniya is the company that has maintained itself with a good strategic position in Kuwait. Although Kuwait has a lot of competition in the market, Wataniya still stood out from most of the organizations. Wataniya has also extended to Algeria by its Nedjma brand. The customer base of this company is 16.2 million.
Qtel has seen a good consumer-following with its Nawras brand which further strengthened Qtel’s market position. Also, Asiacell has progressed in Iraq. It has grown in revenue and profitability both. Asiacell is known for its strong brand equity and quality of service in its region.
Iraq plans to award mobile network license
According to Iraq’s Minister of Communications, Farouq Abdul-Qadir Abdulrahman, Iraq is planning to award the previously announced fourth mobile network license in the first quarter of next year. The new operator will be expected to provide competitive rates to existing operators, as the war-torn country focuses on improving telecom services.
Fifteen companies, including USA-based Verizon Communications, South Africa’s MTN, Turkcell, UAE’s Etisalat, France Telecom, and Vodafone had expressed an interest so far.
It emerges that the license has already officially been awarded to the state-owned Iraqi Telecommunications and Posts Co (ITPC), and the government is now looking for outside investors to build the network.
The country has three operators, Zain, Asiacell and Korek Telecom.
Asiacell expects 30% rise in the revenue this year (Iraq)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 30% increase in the revenue is expected by Iraqi mobile operator Asiacell this year as a result of demand from an influx of foreigners working in the oil sector. According to Asiacell CEO Diar Ahmed, turnover will rise to between USD1.4 billion and USD1.5 billion in 2010, compared to USD1.1 billion a year earlier, despite a global downturn and a tough investment climate.
Asiacell Communications is a consortium comprising Asiacell Iraq owning 30% stake, Qatar Telecom or Qtel with 30% stake and investment group Merchant Bridge with 40%.
He also announced that Asiacell signed up almost half of the two million new subscribers in Iraq in 2009 and growth is expected to accelerate as the private sector plays a wider role in an improved regulatory climate. The government of the country is planning to license a fourth national operator, in which the Ministry of Communications (MoC) would have a 35% stake.
Ahmed feels that the entry of the MoC as a competitor will create a conflict of interest because the government cannot be an operator and regulator and competitor at the same time.
Asiacell expands coverage in Iraq
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Iraqi mobile operator Asiacell has expanded coverage of its wireless network to the city of Anbar, including the cities of Rawah, Ubaidi, Karbalah, Husaibah and Haditha. The expansion work has taken place under the telco plan to provide nationwide coverage in 2010. The campaign has put special emphasis on the western and southern regions.
Asiacell is the country’s second largest cellco by subscribers behind Zain Iraq, with a customer base of 7.74 million at March 31, 2010 and representing a market share of 37.2%.
According to Asiacell’s Chairman, Faruk Mustafa Rasool, making sustainable investments in its infrastructure is one of its main priorities due to its significant contribution to the development of the Iraqi telecoms sector and in raising the sector’s competitiveness in terms of quality and standards. He added that the telco is proud of being the first company to provide coverage for all of Iraq, and pledge to continue to follow the same ambitious methodology in delivering on its promises to the subscribers through providing them with the best telecom services wherever they are.
Etisalat & Korek still in talk for stake sale (Iraq)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Talks between Iraqi mobile network, Korek Telecom and Etisalat are still continuing for the sale of stake of Korek Telecom to UAE based Etisalat. The size of the stake and its valuation has still not being decided resulting in the continuation of the talks.
According to Korek’s vice president, Hameed Abdullah Aqrawi, Korek Telecom and Emirates Telecommunications Corporation are still in negotiations concerning the Emirates Company buying a share in Korek which has continued for a long time since they started in February 2008 but both the companies expect to finish soon.
25 percent of Korek shares will still be traded on the Iraqi Stock Exchange which is in line with a previous agreement with the government.
Zain, Asiacell and Korek Telecom are the three operators in the country and Orascom could have been the fourth one but failed to get an operating license in the last round of auctions and had tried to set up a joint venture with Korek Telecom but that fell apart.
Qatar Telecom reports increase in turnover
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Consolidated group financial and operational results for 2009 has been posted by Qatar Telecom in which 20.5% increase in the net profit attributable to shareholders has been revealed, going up from up from QAR2.3 billion in 2008 to QAR2.8 billion (USD765 million) in the full-year. The company showed 15.1 percent increase in the EBITDA going up to QAR 11.3 billion.
The consolidated customer base of the group stood at 60.5 million at December 31, 2009. Entry of Qtel’s first mobile competitor, Vodafone Qatar affected the domestic EBITDA which fell to QAR3.3 billion.
The Indonesian unit of the company, Indosat’s subscriber base at end-December 2009 stood at 33.7 million, down from 37.0 million a year earlier. Removal of a significant proportion of the lower-value, calling card type behavior subscribers’ from its base over the twelve-month period has been cited as reason behind this decrease.
The total active subscribers of Asiacell increased by 20.4% during 2009 as a result of which the year closed at 7.35 million, revenue increased by 40.4% to QAR4.0 billion and EBITDA increased by 43.9% to QAR2.2 billion.
Zain, Asiacell receive favourable schedule for license payments (Iraq)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: More favourable terms have been provided to Iraqi mobile operators Zain and Asiacell for paying their government license fees, in exchange for a pledge to improve services.
The services of the companies will be monitored for a year by the government and after meeting the service standards the balance of the fees due over five years can be paid by them. Zain and Asiacell have already paid USD 625 million each of the total licenses cost of USD 1.25 billion.
Last year the government slapped fines totaling more than USD 20 million dollars on Zain, Asiacell and the third operator Korek for poor service and for not honoring contracts.
Etisalat inches closer to Korek acquisition (Iraq)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The long-anticipated acquisition of a majority stake in Iraqi mobile network operator; Korek Telecom by the UAE based Etisalat seems to be on the verge of completion. The talk between the two companies has been going on since September 2008.
Zain, Asiacell and Korek Telecom are the three operators in the country. Orascom owned the Iraqna network, but failed to get an operating license in the last round of auctions and had tried to set up a joint venture with Korek Telecom but that fell apart. Iraqna was later sold to Zain.
Etisalat may seek to raise funding via bonds to expand into up to six additional markets, including a possible acquisition of Orascom Telecom’s troubled Algerian subsidiary, Djezzy.
Asiacell & AMWAL sign mobile banking agreement
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: AMWAL, a consortium of Iraqi banks and Asiacell, Iraq’s second largest mobile operator by subscribers has formed a strategic partnership for the provision of a mobile banking service in the country.
Asiacell’s pre-paid customers will now be able to have an account with any of AMWAL’s member banks to use their mobile phone for a variety of financial transactions, including the transfer of money to other accounts and checking of bank balances.
According to Dr Diar Ahmed, CEO of Asiacell, this innovative mobile financial solution will enable Asiacell’s subscribers to enjoy convenient, secure and easy-to-use mobile banking services that are available 24/7 and all year around and the combined efforts of the two companies will act as major leap in developing Iraq’s technological capacity.
