The first initial public offering in the UAE in nearly two years has been cancelled, as the company set to go public — mobile phone retailer Axiom Telecom — reconsidered its options.

Axiom was set to offer institutional investors about US$100 million in shares, although the size of the issue had steadily fallen from more optimistic plans announced earlier in the year. The company had originally looked to IPO up to 35 per cent of the stock.

Axiom was set to list its shares on the Nasdaq Dubai before the end of the year with an offering that was expected to give it a market valuation of US$1 billion.

“While there were sufficient orders to fully cover the I.P.O. book at the price range, primarily due to demand from high quality international investors in Europe and the US, there were widespread concerns about market conditions and liquidity,” the company said in a statement. “The board has therefore decided to withdraw the offer at this juncture to protect current and future shareholders of Axiom.”

Faisal Al Bannai, founder and head of the company, which is controlled by the Al Bannai family, called the decision a difficult one, but insisted on Axiom’s “suitability as a public company” and said he would be “re-evaluating our options in the future.”

The range of the offering was set between US$0.80 and US$1.15, with most subscribers near the top of the range, according to the company.

Axiom planned to use the funds to pay down debt.

A subsidiary of Dubai Holding owns 40 percent of Axiom, with another seven per cent of the company belonging to Al Zarouni Enterprises.

Batelco Group has appointed Rashid Abdulla as its CEO for Bahrain, replacing Gert Rieder, who departed the telco at the end of October for personal reasons.

Abdulla becomes the first national to hold the most senior role at Batelco Bahrain. He has been in the telecom sector for 30 years and was most recently the managing director of Qualitynet, Batelco Group’s Kuwait operation. He will assume responsibility for Batelco Bahrain at the end of January 2011.

Abdulla began his working career at Batelco in 1986 as an engineering manager, having completed a BSc in Electrical & Electronics Engineering as a trainee with Cable & Wireless, Batelco’s former shareholder.

Over the past 25 years, he has held management roles in a variety of Batelco’s departments and was instrumental in the delivery of a number of major achievements including the launch of Internet services in 1995.

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) has announced that it has signed an agreement with a consortium led by Princesse Holding of Tunisia to jointly acquire from Orascom Telecom Holding its 50 per cent shareholding in Orascom Telecom Tunisie (Tunisiana). Qtel has completed the transaction via its 52.5 per cent subsidiary Wataniya Telecom. Wataniya has an existing 50 per cent shareholding in Tunisiana.

Under the terms of the agreement, Wataniya and the Princesse Holding consortium (the partners) will acquire the stock for US$1.2 billion. The Partners will work with the Tunisian authorities to finalise the transaction and anticipate closing with Orascom Telecom in early January 2011. Wataniya will finance its portion of the transaction with a mixture of existing cash and debt, and now will control the board and management of Tunisiana, allowing it to fully consolidate the business.

With this transaction, Qtel Group consolidates its position as a leading communications group in the MENA region, with nine controlled operations.

India’s Bharti Airtel today unveiled a new brand identity which it plans to roll out across its entire global footprint in Asia and Africa. The company also announced that it has crossed the significant milestone of 200 million customers. Airtel crossed 50 million customers in October 2007 and 100 million in May, 2009. The company added the next 100 million customers in just 18 months.

For its customers in India, Airtel also announced that it was on course to launch its 3G services by the end of the year.

The new brand identity drops the Bharti and the capital letter for Airtel to create “airtel”.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Bharti Airtel’s chairman and MD, and Sanjay Kapoor, CEO South Asia and India

Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Technology has announced that six companies have submitted bids for the country’s third mobile network operator licence. Assistant minister Mohammad al-Jalali said that the bidders are: Etisalat; Saudi Telecom; Qatar Telecom; Turkcell; France Telecom; and Iran’s TAMCO.

He added that these tenders will be evaluated by a committee from the ministry with the participation of a German advisory company as two candidates will be chosen to go to the next stage.

Applicants need at last three years of experience in operating a mobile network and must be already operating in two countries with at least 1.5 million customers in each.

According to the tender documents, a bidder may comprise more than one operator, but Syria’s state telecom company will hold a 20 per cent stake in the company that is eventually awarded the licence.

Syria’s two incumbent operators will have to buy out their current BOT agreements and convert to a conventional licence agreement. The buyout price has been previously reported as being around US$500 million.

Syria is estimated to have had just over 9.1 million mobile phone subscribers at the end of March 2010, representing a mobile penetration rate of 44 per cent.