Virgin Mobile, Friendi Grp To Merge Assets; Eye MEA Expansion

Monday, Jun 04, 2012

DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--South African Virgin Mobile and Friendi Group, a regional Mobile Virtual Network Operator, said Monday that they will merge their assets in the Middle East and Africa where they will look to expand and target 5 million customers by 2015.

"Subject to local authority clearances, the two groups will merge their regional telecom operations to create a combined entity to be called Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa, or VMMEA, which will develop and operate mobile telecommunications businesses across the region," the two companies said in a joint statement.

The combined group will manage the current operations of Virgin Mobile in South Africa and Friendi Group in Oman, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, creating a regional mobile telecom player with more than 1 million customers, the companies said.

The new group also has plans to launch in more markets across the Middle East and Africa, and is targeting a regional customer base of over 5 million subscribers by 2015, the statement said.

-By Shereen El Gazzar, Dow Jones Newswires; +971 444 61684; Shereen.elgazzar@dowjones.com; Twitter: @ZDJnews

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-06-12 1240GMT