Tuesday, Jun 07, 2011
(This story was originally published Monday.)
AMMAN (Zawya Dow Jones)--U.A.E.-based Emirates Telecommunications Corp., or Etisalat, the region's biggest telecom provider by market value, isn't looking for new acquisitions at the moment after plans to buy a large stake in Kuwait's mobile operator Zain fell through earlier this year, the telco's top executive said Monday.
"We are not looking now (at acquisitions). We are focusing on Arab countries and I think it will need time to come back...to be active again," Mohamed Omran, Etisalat's chief executive officer, told reporters on the sidelines of a telecoms conference in Amman.
Etisalat said in March it had scrapped a near-$12 billion plan to buy 46% of Kuwaiti rival Zain, a deal that would have given it access to new markets in the region such as Iraq, Kuwait and Morocco. The operator blamed political unrest in the region and disagreement among Zain shareholders for the deal failure.
The U.A.E. biggest telco also recently scrapped plans to bid for Syria's third mobile license, saying such a move wouldn't be of value to shareholders.
"We have decided not to participate in Syria...if the rules to the model change we will be interested," said Omran.
According to analysts, one of the factors that might have led Etisalat to decide against going ahead with a bid for Syria's third mobile licence is the requirement that the new operator would have to pay 25% of its revenues to the Syrian government.
In addition, state-run Syrian Telecommunications Establishment, or STE, would take a 20% stake in the new mobile operator.
-By Shereen El Gazzar, Dow Jones Newswires, +9714 446 1684 Shereen.elgazzar@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-06-11 0354GMT
