For the year 2008, Zain Group recorded consolidated revenues of US$7.441 billion, an all-time high, which reflected an increase of 26 per cent compared to 2007. The company’s consolidated EBITDA increased by 15 per cent for the same period to reach US$2.78 billion. Consolidated net profits reached US$ 1.2 billion, an increase of six per cent on 2007.

CEO Al Barrak said that if currencies had been stable, Zain would have added another 12 per cent to net profit

Year-on-year customer growth across the two continents in which Zain operates was 50 per cent with the operator serving 63.54 million active customers as at end-December, 2008.

“Despite a very challenging environment on many fronts and huge investments in network expansion, the group was able to achieve appealing and realistic levels of profitability during 2008, a testament to the sound management practices and excellent operational performance of all 22 operations in the Middle East and Africa,” commented Zain Group CEO, Saad Al Barrak.

Referring to the global financial crisis and volatility that has affected many equity markets, commodities and currencies, Al Barrak said, “Despite the fact that company had to endure higher borrowing rates in the second half of the year and an adverse US$138 million in currency exchange cost predominantly in Africa, it still performed admirably. This amount would have added another 12 per cent to the net profit figure should currencies have stayed relatively stable.”

Orange Uganda (formerly Hits Telecom) is chasing a deadline to launch GSM services in the country by the end of March, with an optimistic launch date set for the middle of that month.

Orange Uganda will be the fourth mobile operator in the country, which counted fewer than 7.5 million subscribers at the end of September 2008, representing a mobile penetration rate of 25 per cent

As reported by Comm. last November, France Telecom confirmed it had acquired a 53 per cent stake in Hits Telecom Uganda, ending months of uncertainty with respect to whether or not the Ugandan licensee’s concession would be revoked.

In the middle of 2008 Uganda’s telecoms regulator, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), had warned the backers of Hits Telecom Uganda that the operation risked losing its licence if it did not commercially launch its network by September of that year. The licensee was granted a mobile concession in March 2007 and was given 18 months from that date to start offering commercial services.

Hits Telecom Uganda had built out part of its network, which is supplied by Alcatel-Lucent, and had carried out test calls, however, planned commercial launch dates were missed.

Upon launch, Orange Uganda will be the country’s fourth mobile operator behind Zain, MTN, and Warid Telecom. According to figures from Informa Telecoms & Media, at the end of Q308, Uganda counted approximately 7.4 million subscribers, representing a mobile penetration rate of around 25 per cent.

It was the investment by France Telecom towards the end of 2008, and the subsequent renegotiation of the network launch requirements that have gotten the licensee edging towards commercial launch. The universal service licence allows Orange Uganda to operate a range of access technologies including CDMA, GSM, WCDMA and WiMAX, and also permits the licensee to deploy an international gateway.

The cost of the acquisition by France Telecom was not revealed, though it has been speculated that the telco is looking to invest as much as US$375 million in the deployment of a network across Uganda.

Ahmad Haleem, formerly the CEO of Wataniya International, has assumed the role of senior advisor to Zain Group CEO, Saad Al Barrak, Comm. can reveal.

Based in Bahrain, Haleem will form part of the senior management team charting the strategic direction of the pan-regional operator, focussing on group-level developments.

The appointment brings Haleem back into the fray as a senior management figure of a regional service provider after a two-year hiatus. In April 2007 Haleem said he felt the time was right for him to explore other opportunities following the agreement by 51 per cent of Wataniya Telecom shareholders to sell a controlling stake in the operator to Qtel. Wataniya International is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Wataniya Telecom.

Qtel’s US$3.4 billion offer for the 51 per cent stake in Wataniya Telecom valued the entire company at close to US$7 billion, and Haleem believes together with his management team at Wataniya International, he was instrumental in helping create much of this value. The international arm of Wataniya was only established as a holding company in July 2004, following Wataniya’s expansion into markets including Tunisia, Algeria and Iraq.

In the time following his departure from Wataniya International, Haleem harboured plans to establish an investment company of sorts, which would look to create value in opportunities occurring in the region. He deferred the creation of this venture until the “economic market turmoil calms down,” and subsequently became involved in a company called Meeza Technical Solutions, which caters to mobile operators in the in-building solutions arena.

Haleem earned a Bachelors Degree of Science in Accounting from the University of Illinois, Chicago and obtained his CPA qualification in 1989. After 14 years of service with Motorola, he was appointed as CFO of Wataniya Telecom in Kuwait in 2001.  In March 2004, he was appointed CEO of Wataniya International.

Last month STC came through as the winner of Bahrain’s third mobile licence, having participated in the final rounds of the bid process without competitors. Given the proximity of Saudi Arabia to Bahrain, and the significant human traffic that commutes between the two countries, it made sense from a strategic perspective for STC to pursue the opportunity aggressively. However, does the absence of any other short-listed bidders in the final stages of the process perhaps point to the concession being a largely unnecessary and unattractive investment?

Jostling for position in Bahrain’s increasingly congested telecoms space will require a large amount of skill

At the end of last month Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) confirmed STC the winner of the country’s third mobile licence, with the Saudi operator having bid BD86.687 million (US$230 million) for the concession. With a population of just 1.2 million inhabitants, this implied a per capita licence fee of around US$192 for Bahrain, compared to US$5.50 for the third licence in Iran, and US$36.25 for Egypt’s third mobile licence based on a population estimate of 80 million.

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Etisalat has made a habit of paying big for greenfield opportunities in large markets, and to its credit, has always gone on to justify the significant up-front fees it has agreed to pay. Having been picked as the winner of the third mobile licence in Iran, Etisalat has again offered top dollar for the opportunity, and it now remains to be seen whether the UAE operator can continue its run of making big business out of big investments

Iran is a country of 70 million, which has a mobile penetration rate in excess of 60 per cent and an industry ARPU of around US$9

Last month Etisalat confirmed it had been singled out as the winner of Iran’s third mobile licence, with a winning up-front fee amounting to US$402.1 million. Etisalat is set to pay a portion of this fee in line with its 49 per cent stake in the operator, and the new operator will then be granted a 15-year licence, with access to 3G spectrum for an initial exclusive period.

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