Zain Saudi Arabia has announced the closure of a US$2.5 billion Murabaha financing facility. The funds will be used to repay its existing Murabaha, facilitating the mobile telecom operation’s ongoing network expansion and future growth. The term of the facility is two years with options of extending for a further twelve months. Al Rajhi Capital, Banque Saudi Fransi and Calyon acted as financial advisors, with a total of eight regional and international financial institutions participating in what is one of the largest Islamic financings this year.

“This is an enormous vote of confidence by the international financial community in Zain KSA’s performance to date and its future expansion plans in the region’s largest economy,” said Saad Al Barrak, CEO of Zain Saudi Arabia and Zain Group. “The growth and success of this mobile operation is critical to Zain Group’s 2011 ambition of being a top ten global mobile telecommunications company.”

In less than 12 months, Zain Saudi Arabia has acquired four million customers. For the first half of 2009, Zain KSA reported gross revenues of US$342 million with ARPU of US$19. Zain KSA captured over 50 per cent of total net additions in the mobile telecom market during H109. The company’s network covers 65 per cent of the populated areas, with 85 per cent targeted by the end of 2009.

Nortel Networks Corporation announced a number of leadership changes and a new organisational structure designed to work towards the completion of the sales of the company’s businesses and other restructuring activities with a continued focus on maximising value while preserving Nortel’s innovative technology platforms and employment to the greatest extent possible.

Effective August 10, 2009, Nortel president and CEO Mike Zafirovski stepped down. Also effective on that date, the boards of directors of NNC and Nortel Networks Limited (NNL) reduced from nine to three members: John A. MacNaughton, Jalynn H. Bennett and David Richardson, with Richardson serving as chairperson. These individuals will also serve as members of NNC’s and NNL’s audit committees.

Zafirovski claims Nortel had been making progress, but was negatively affected by the adverse global economic climate

“We’ve reached a logical departure point,” said Harry Pearce, chairman of Nortel’s board of directors. “Mike made a commitment to see the process through the stabilisation of the company, sale of its largest assets and the right plans and people to continue operating our business and serving customers. He has done so. I appreciate the commitment and passion he brought to this company since day one, including his guidance through the extremely difficult decisions we faced since filing for creditor protection.”

Zafirovski commented: “I am extremely proud to have been associated with this company. The board members and I came to Nortel because we really believed in the value of Nortel’s people and technology. Although solid progress was made in many areas, at the end, the capital structure and legacy costs coupled with the economic downturn proved too difficult to surmount. I have tremendous respect for the board of this company and the process we went through to initially transform the company, and since filing, to work to maximise the value of our businesses while preserving employment and customer commitments to the greatest extent possible.”

Concurrent with the aforementioned announcement, Nortel established a structure that will enable the company to effectively continue to serve its customers, and also facilitate the sales of its businesses and integration processes with acquiring companies as well as to continue with its restructuring activities.

• The company’s business units – Wireless Networks, Enterprise Solutions, Metro Ethernet Networks, Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions and the LG-Nortel joint venture – will report to the chief restructuring officer, Pavi Binning.
• The company’s mergers and acquisitions teams will continue their work under the chief strategy officer, George Riedel.
• Nortel Business Services (NBS) will continue to serve the transitional operations needs of Nortel businesses as they are sold to ensure customer and network service levels are maintained throughout the sale and integration processes. NBS will continue to be led by Joe Flanagan.
• A core corporate group is being established that will be primarily responsible for the management of ongoing restructuring activities during the sales process as well as post business dispositions. This group will be led by John Doolittle, formerly Nortel’s treasurer.

The UAE’s second telecoms operator Du today reported that revenues grew 12.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter during Q209 to reach AED1.31 billion (US$357 million). In Q208 Du generated revenues of AED907.8 million, with the growth in top-line business being attributed to the growth in mobile subscribers, as well as a strong performance from the wholesale business.

Net profit before royalty exceeded AED100 million for the first time, reaching AED115.3 million for the period. This compares to AED46.7 million in Q1 and a net loss of AED43.9 million in the second quarter of 2008.

Osman Sultan says Du shall be focussing on growing its post-paid subscriber base for the rest of this year

“For 2009 onwards, we are focused on growing significantly the proportion of Du’s high end, post-pay customer base. We made our first steps in this direction in April with the launch of our post-paid Elite and Premier Plans and have already started seeing the benefits of this strategic move with strong take up of both this quarter,” commented Osman Sultan, Du’s CEO. “In line with Du’s strategy of increasing transparency for its investors, having been the first to define and disclose its active customer base, we are releasing our pre- and post-pay mobile subscriber additions for the first time this quarter.”

Active mobile subscribers in the quarter increased to 2.9 million following the net addition of 155,900 subscribers over the period. Mobile revenues reached a record high of AED881.6 million in Q209, an increase of 11 per cent over Q109 and 48 per cent year on year.

Du disclosed that it added 16,700 post-paid mobile subscribers during the Q209, a significant increase over previous periods and a result of a post-paid marketing focus. The operator also added 139,200 prepaid mobile subscribers over the period.

Post-paid customers still represent a small proportion of Du’s overall mobile customer base at three per cent.

Revenues for Du’s fixed business, including fixed telephony, TV and broadband, amounted to AED242.6 million, up a mere five per cent year-on-year, reflecting 328,500 lines.

EBITDA increased to AED242 million up 52 per cent quarter-on-quarter, representing 18 per cent of revenues, up from 14 per cent in Q109.

Du’s capital expenditure programme is anticipated to exceed AED 2 billion in 2009, with AED404.5 million accounted for during Q209 bringing year to date expenditure to AED1.04 billion.

Nortel Networks today announced that it has concluded a successful auction of substantially all of Nortel’s CDMA business and LTE access assets. Ericsson has emerged as the winning bidder with a purchase price of US$1.13 billion. The bid is subject to court approvals in the U.S. and Canada as well as regulatory and other customary closing conditions and certain post-closing purchase price adjustments.

If approved by the courts, Ericsson will purchase Nortel’s CDMA business, which is the second largest supplier of CDMA infrastructure in the world, and substantially all of Nortel’s LTE access assets giving it a strong technology position in next generation wireless networks. Also as part of this agreement, a minimum of 2,500 Nortel employees supporting the CDMA and LTE Access business will receive offers of employment from Ericsson.

“Nortel remains focused on finding the right buyers for our other businesses while continuing to maintain excellent customer service levels,” commented Mike Zafirovski, Nortel president and CEO. “We are determined to maximise value while preserving innovation platforms, customer relationships and jobs to the greatest extent possible. With today’s agreement and through the anticipated sales of the company’s other businesses, Nortel will leave its mark on the industry for decades to come.”

“The agreement between Nortel and Ericsson brings together leading-edge wireless innovation from two of the world’s top telecommunications suppliers. We at Ericsson look forward to integrating Nortel’s products and talented employees into our business and realising the full potential of our combined strengths,” said Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and CEO of Ericsson.

The sale of the CDMA and LTE assets to Ericsson follows a deal reached on July 20 by which Nortel entered into a “stalking horse” asset and share sale agreement with Avaya for its North American, Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) and Asia Enterprise Solutions business; and an asset sale agreement with Avaya for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) portion of its Enterprise Solutions business for a purchase price of US$475 million. These agreements include the planned sale of substantially all of the assets of the Enterprise Solutions business globally as well as the shares of Nortel Government Solutions Incorporated (NGS) and DiamondWare.

Vodafone Qatar listed on the Qatar Exchange, which is the successor to the Doha Securities Market, in which NYSE Euronext recently acquired a 20 per cent stake, on July 22, 2009.

Vodafone Qatar’s initial public offering of 40 per cent of the company’s authorised share capital took place from 12 to 26 April, 2009, raising QAR 3.38 billion (US$950 million), the largest IPO globally in 2009 at the time subscriptions closed.

Once listed, 100 per cent of the company’s authorised share capital is open to foreign investment, with no limits on foreign ownership. The founders’ shares, representing 60 per cent of the authorised share capital, are blocked from trading for 2 years.

On the first day of listing shares were permitted to be traded in any price range. Thereafter, shares could be traded at plus or minus 10 per cent as per Qatar Exchange trading rules.

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