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Bahrain-listed technology company Beyon has been selected by the Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) as for building and operating the Fixed Telecommunications Network Development Project under a 50-year Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement.
Under the agreement, Beyon will design, finance, build, operate, and maintain Kuwait’s nationwide, high-speed fibre broadband network with a total investment exceeding $2.8 billion over the lifetime of the agreement, the company said in a press statement.
KAPP will hold a 60 percent stake in the project company to be established, while Beyon will retain 40 percent. Once the network is fully operational, KAPP plans to IPO a portion of shares for subscription by Kuwaiti citizens.
10Gbps, 90 percent coverage target
The project aims to reach 90 percent of Kuwait’s available plots, delivering 10Gbps symmetrical connectivity in line with PPP requirements.
The award follows a multi-stage qualification and tender process in which Beyon was selected ahead of several international competitors after meeting technical and compliance criteria.
In October 2024, Kuwait had pre-qualified four companies - Bahrain Telecom Company (Batelco), the UAE’s e&, Canada’s Brookfield Corp and Italy’s TIM Group – to bid for the project.
Beyon said the proposal was developed entirely in-house, highlighting its engineering and network transformation capabilities.
Last week, KAPP had obtained conditional approval from the State Audit Bureau (SAB) to award the contract at a total cost of 9.928 million Kuwaiti dinars, according to a report by Arab Times.
Beyon has deployed large-scale fibre networks in Bahrain, Jordan, the Maldives and the Channel Islands, delivering more than 2.2 million home-passed connections. In Bahrain, fiber coverage has reached 95.4 percent, supported by structural separation reforms in 2019 that established Bahrain Network (BNET) as a standalone wholesale infrastructure entity and Batelco by Beyon as the parent retail telecom and digital technology enterprise. In June 2023, the company officially changed its trading symbol on the Bahrain Bourse from BATELCO to BEYON.
Shaikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Chairman of Beyon Group, said the Kuwait win reinforces the Group’s commitment to enabling advanced digital infrastructure across the region and demonstrates the strength of regional capabilities in delivering projects of strategic national importance.
CEO Andrew Kvalseth added that the company’s experience from the structural separation of BNET as a standalone entity has provided it with “practical insight into managing large-scale fibre infrastructure under a national regulatory framework.”
(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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