Jordan Telecom to buy stake in Bahrain firm

Jordan Telecom is planning to acquire 50 per cent stake in Bahrain-based fixed-line operator Lightspeed Communications before the end of next year.

It is part of company’s plans to spend $300 million to buy stakes in Middle East telecoms and Internet operators in a bid to diversify away from a highly competitive home market, the company’s chairman said.

“This will be our first international investment,” Shabib Ammari said on the sidelines of a telecoms conference in Dubai.

“We have the know-how and $350 million in free cash to do more of this.”

Jordan Telecom’s mobile phone operator, Mobilecom, is one of four operators serving Jordan’s 5.5m population, leaving little room for growth in the domestic market, Ammari said.

Jordan Telecom’s 2006 full-year net profits will be virtually on a par with its 2005 earnings of 86m Jordan dinars ($121.4m), Ammari said.

“Our base market must continue to be our number one revenue segment,” Ammari said.

“But we want to diversify by buying stakes in operators in the region or through partnerships with local partners in different markets.”

In Bahrain, Jordan Telecom, in which France Telecom is the biggest shareholder, and Lightspeed will roll out fixed-line telecoms services including voice, video and data beginning in spring 2007, Ammari said.

On June 28, France Telecom raised its stake in Jordan Telecom by 10pc to 50pc plus one share.

France Telecom will acquire another 1pc ahead of a rebranding campaign in 2007, in which Mobilecom will take France Telecom’s Orange brand name, Ammari said. Kuwait’s Noor Financial Investment also owns a 10pc stake in Jordan Telecom, which it bought in July for 115m dinars, he added.

The company has signed an agreement with business partners in Egypt to tap into the country’s growing Internet market by investing in Internet service providers, the chairman said.

Source- http://www.gulf-daily-news.com