KUWAIT CITY: In what is seen as the largest telecom deal in the Gulf region, the Kuwait Projects Company (Holding) — KIPCO — which led a consortium of shareholders in Wataniya, has agreed to sell its entire 51 percent stake to Qatar Telecommunications Company (Qtel) for KD 1.075 billion ($3.7 billion). Speaking at a press conference Friday in downtown Kuwait City, KIPCO’s managing director and chief executive officer Faisal Al-Ayyar said Qtel will pay each shareholder KD 4.600. On Wednesday, the last trading day of the week the share closed at KD 3.100.
The deal will be finalized within five days from the date of the completion of the terms and conditions, he said. “When completed the deal will be the largest in the history of the region and Kuwait. It is the first time that a strategic capital has changed hands among GCC states. This comes to fulfill the vision of HH the Amir who had promised to the nation in February 2006 to free the Kuwaiti economy and make Kuwait once again a commercial and financial center of the region. “The deal, which projects the working strategy of KIPCO as one of the fastest growing enterprise, is important from the economic point of view for the GCC states particularly Kuwait, Al-Ayyar added.
KIPCO, Al-Ayyar told the press, focuses on the telecommunications sector and considers this sector as its main target because Wataniya has achieved continued success over the past seven years, side by side increasing the share value and its capital for the benefit of the shareholders. The CEO added there has been a lot of talk about establishing a unified GCC market but nothing has been done in this regard. The deal between Qtel and KIPCO is the first of its kind in the region and will open the door for similar ventures in future. Earlier, Qtel was named as one of the three potential Arab bidders to buy the stake put up for sale by the Wataniya shareholders, thus bracing for an end to its monopoly in Qatar this year.
Earlier, the two other bidders from the region — Emirates Technologies Telemedia Corp (Etisalat), the second largest telecoms firm by market value, said it had dropped plans for a bid in Wataniya and Dubai-based Oger Telecom, owned by Saudi conglomerate Saudi Oger had said it was not in talks. KIPCO is a holding company with investments in 54 companies ranging from communications to financial services and owns around 24 percent of Wataniya. Wataniya runs a mobile telephone network in Iraq, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and the Maldives. Qtel operates a subsidiary in Oman and bought a 25 percent stake in Asia Mobile Holdings Pte Ltd, a unit of Singapore Technologies Telemedia in January.
By Paul Francis X. Fernandes - Arab Times Staff
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