Zain Group today issued a statement in which it sort to make an official comment on what it described as misleading media reports. The points it sought to address are as follows:

1. The media reports that infer Zain is seeking to sell towers in several of the markets it operates are inaccurate and misleading   

2. Zain Group management is regularly considering new business opportunities and business models that increase shareholder value

3. Over the years Zain has invested and still is investing heavily in expanding and upgrading networks across all its operations, and like many other well-managed operators across the region is always assessing more efficient practices in optimising networks

4. The examination of a new tower -related business model is in its very early stages and to date there is no decision on whether Zain will make any changes to its current business model in any or all of its operations

5. Should Zain’s management wish to undertake any changes in its tower business model in any of its markets, and should it receive board of directors’ approval to do so, it will seek regulatory approvals from the relevant authorities in each country before doing so.

6. As a listed company on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, and in two other markets as well, Zain will also advise all stakeholders in a timely manner when and if such ever occurs.

Nokia has reported net sales in Q4 2014 to end-December 2014 of €3.8 billion (US$4.3 billion), up 8.6 per cent year-on-year. The company’s full-year net sales amounted to €12.7 billion, flat on the previous year.

Overall, Nokia recorded profit (non-IFRS) for Q4 of €356 million, up 12 per cent year-on-year, while profit (non-IFRS) for the year was €1.095 billion, up 25 per cent year-on-year.

Nokia broke down the results for its operating entities accordingly:

Nokia Networks

· Nokia Networks achieved eight per cent year-on-year growth in net sales, from €3.1 billion in Q4 2013 to €3.4 billion in Q4 2014, primarily due to strong performance in North America.

· Nokia Networks achieved strong underlying operating profitability with non-IFRS operating profit of €470 million, or 14 per cent of net sales, compared to €349 million, or 11.2 per cent of net sales in Q4 2013.

· Mobile broadband achieved 13 per cent year-on-year increase in net sales, driven by strong growth in overall core networking technologies and modest growth in overall radio technologies. Within radio technologies, strong year-on-year growth in LTE was partially offset by a decline in mature radio technologies.

· Global Services returned to year-on-year growth for the first time since Q4 2012, with net sales up by three per cent and particularly strong growth in the strategically important systems integration business line.

HERE

· HERE achieved 15 per cent year-on-year growth in net sales, from €255 million in Q4 2013 to €292 million in Q4 2014, primarily due to HERE’s leading market position and positive trends in the automotive market.

· In Q4 2014, HERE sold map data licences for the embedded navigation systems of 3.9 million new vehicles, compared to 3.2 million vehicles in Q4 2013.

Nokia Technologies

· Nokia Technologies achieved 23 per cent year-on-year growth in net sales, from €121 million in Q4 2013 to €149 million in Q4 2014, primarily due to Microsoft becoming a more significant intellectual property licensee in conjunction with the sale of substantially all of Nokia’s Devices & Services business to Microsoft, as well as higher intellectual property licensing income from certain other licensees.

· In Q4 2014, Nokia Technologies non-IFRS operating expenses increased both year-on-year and sequentially primarily due to investments in business activities, which target new and significant long-term growth opportunities, as well as increased activities related to anticipated and ongoing patent licensing cases.

According to a Bloomberg report, Zain is working with Citigroup on the sale of its tower network in two Gulf countries, which may fetch as much as US$2 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Zain is said to be seeking to sell about 8,000 towers in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. The sale will probably attract telecommunications companies with businesses in the region as well as private-equity firms, they said.

Zain operates across eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa and has over 44 million customers.

The company has appointed advisors to examine the best business model, which could include tower sharing or sale and lease back agreements, a spokesman for Zain said by phone. The process is in its early stages and the company will do what’s best for its shareholders and customers, the spokesman said. A spokeswoman for Citigroup declined to comment.

Alcatel-Lucent has been selected by Vodacom, South Africa’s largest mobile service provider, to build a gigabit passive optical networking (GPON) solution to expand Vodacom’s enterprise and residential markets.

The new converged network enables Vodacom to provide customers with ultra-broadband needed to access bandwidth-hungry services and applications such as online gaming and streaming video.

Vodacom will deploy Alcatel-Lucent’s comprehensive end-to-end GPON solution, as well as the Motive customer experience platform to provide high-quality network performance through advanced performance management capabilities across both wireline and wireless. Vodacom expects to reach about 150,000 homes and 100,000 business within the next three years.

Mobily, which in November re-stated 18 months of profits, swung to a shock fourth-quarter loss on January 21.

An affiliate of Etisalat, Mobily made a net loss of SAR2.28 billion (US$607.1 million) in the three months to December 31, down from a profit of SAR1.69 billion in the prior-year period.

In a statement Mobily attributed the reason for the net loss as being mainly due to a decrease in revenues, an increase in operating expenses, higher depreciation and finance expenses as well as exceptional expense items recorded during the current quarter compared with the same quarter in 2013.

In November, Mobily cut its profits for 2013 and the first half of 2014 by a combined SAR1.43 billion, citing accounting errors, and also reported a 71 per cent drop in third-quarter profit.

Mobily’s actions prompted the bourse regulator to launch a probe and the company later suspended its chief executive.

Mobily’s 2014 annual profit was SAR220 million, down from a net profit of SAR5.94 billion in 2013.