Bharti Airtel says that it has raised US$1.26 billion by selling a five per cent stake in the company to the Qatar Foundation Endowment (QFE) – an investment company owned by the Qatari royal family.

Airtel will issue just under 200 million new shares to QFE representing a shareholding of five per cent in the company, post issuance of the new shares. QFE is paying a 7.3% premium over the public share price for its investment.

In a brief statement, Airtel said that the investment will further strengthen the capital structure and provide further flexibility for the company to deliver on its growth strategy.

The company currently has US$11.7 billion of debt and has been looking to pay down the ratio in advance of further investments in radio spectrum purchases and one-off spectrum fees being applied by the Indian government.

UAE telco, Du has reported a 10.7 per cent rise in its first-quarter revenues to AED2.63 billion (US$715 million), with net profit up 40.5 per cent year-on-year to AED 468 million, thanks largely to cost cutting measures.

The company added 182,261 new customers, taking its total customer base at the end of March to 6.64 million. Du estimates its mobile market share at 48.1 per cent.

Mobile revenues increased by 11.13 per cent year-on-year, reaching AED 2.06 billion, but witnessed a slight decrease of 1.65 per cent on the previous quarter.

The company invested AED368 million during the quarter on capex.

Turkcell has dropped a lawsuit it was filing in the US claiming MTN Group used bribery to deprive it of its Iranian mobile network licence in 2005.

Turkcell said that it is dropping the case because of an earlier Supreme Court ruling on the Alien Tort Statute, which limits lawsuits in the US affecting companies that predominantly operate overseas.

MTN had long argued that any dispute between South African and Turkish companies, over an Iranian issue should not be held in the US.

Turkcell’s lawsuit in the US had been put on hold while the Supreme Court deliberated on an unrelated case affecting the Shell oil company. Shells’ victory in that case undermined Turkcell’s argument to have its case heard in the US.

Turkcell was suing MTN for US$4.2 billion in damages over how its Iranian mobile licence was cancelled and later awarded to the South African company.

MTN, through one of its subsidiaries, owns a 49 per cent shareholding in Irancell, which holds the second GSM licence in Iran. The remaining 51 per cent in the cellco is owned and controlled by Iran Electronic Development Company (IEDC).

Turkcell and its subsidiary, East Asian Consortium (EAC) was originally awarded the licence in 2003.

Turkcell’s near 70 per cent stake was reduced to 49 per cent by the Iranian government in 2005, and by June of that year, the Iranian government had cancelled Turkcell’s licence and started talks with MTN for the concession.

Ooredoo today reported revenue for Q113 to end-March 2013 amounted to QAR8.442 billion (US$2.32 billion), up 5.2 per cent year-on-year and driven by strong performance in the group’s home market of Qatar, in addition to further strong momentum from international group operations in Algeria, Indonesia and Iraq.

As at March 31, the group’s consolidated customer base stood at 91 million (Q112: 84.4million), representing year-on-year growth of 7.7per cent. Group EBITDA in the period decreased by 3.1 per cent year-on-year to QAR3.7 billion, while Q113 EBITDA margin stood at 44 per cent, down from 48per cent a year earlier.

Net profit attributable to Ooredoo shareholders rose to QAR808 million, up 13.6 per cent year-on-year, including the impact of the increased shareholding in Asiacell and Wataniya.

Revenue in Qatar grew by 4.9 per cent year-on-year to QAR1.6 billion, while EBITDA decreased to QAR771 million, down 3.4 per cent. Ooredoo Qatar’s consolidated customer base stood at 2.7 million at the end of Q113, up 300,000 from a year previously.

In Q113 Asiacell delivered revenue of QAR1.7 billion, up 5.6 per cent year-on-year. EBITDA in Q1 was down slightly by 1.7 per cent year-on-year to QAR900 million.

Mobile satellite services operator Thuraya has selected Ericsson as the sole vendor for its circuit-switched core network. Under the agreement, Ericsson will upgrade the Thuraya circuit-switched core network, implement a billing mediation solution and provide support services for five years.

The core network upgrade includes a hardware upgrade of Thuraya’s Mobile Switching Centre (MSC), and hardware and software enhancements for the Home Location Register (HLR), Operation Support Systems (OSS) and Multi Mediation platform.

Ericsson’s relationship with Thuraya began more than 15 years ago when Thuraya and Hughes International awarded the first network contract to Ericsson in 1997.