Wednesday, May 02, 2012
DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Saudi Telecom Co. (7010.SA), or STC, the kingdom's biggest telecom operator by market capitalization, is open to the idea of tower sharing where it operates abroad, and such a move could wipe up to 30% from its operational and capital expenditure bill, the telco's international chief executive said.
"Of course this (tower sharing) is always on the table. In every market we look at the towers market by market," Ghassan Hasbani, the chief executive of STC's international operations told Zawya Dow Jones in an interview Wednesday. "We are always open for partnerships for collaboration and for divestiture of assets".
According to STC's website, it now has a presence in Kuwait, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey and South Africa.
While savings will vary from one country to another, Hasbani said tower sharing could slash STC's capex and opex spending by 20% to 30%.
The concept of mobile tower sharing has been tried and tested in markets like the U.S., U.K., India and Africa but has been slow to gain popularity in the Middle East due in part to government protection of local telecom firms from competition, reliable power supplies, and relatively high revenue per user rates.
"We are very specific about the passive infrastructure of towers," Hasbani said Wednesday. "We are looking at it in every market," said Hasbani.
In terms of acquisitions, Hasbani said STC is always looking at companies that would compliment its existing portfolio "as we did with Intigral that they (acquisitions) can support our core revenues."
In December, STC acquired an additional 20% of Intigral for 90 million Saudi riyals ($24 million), taking its stake in the local provider of digital media content services to 71%.
"The value of this industry is complimentary and helps us maintain and grow our core revenue, that's why we will continue to look at companies in the digitization space," said Hasbani.
STC last week said that its first-quarter net profit increased 60% year-on-year to 2.52 billion Saudi riyals ($671 million), as it added more mobile and fixed broadband customers.
-By Shereen El Gazzar, Dow Jones Newswires, +9714 446 1684 Shereen.elgazzar@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
02-05-12 1244GMT
