Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa has secured a US$15 million senior secured facility, with the cross-border agreement covering operations in Oman, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and South Africa.

The Shariah-compliant financing was secured from the Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME,) the largest Islamic bank in Europe, as part of a Murabaha agreement. The closing and initial drawdown has already been successfully concluded.

Ooredoo today announced that it has reached the milestone of more than three million customers in Qatar – the highest number ever recorded by the company.

The total customer base includes mobile, fixed line, broadband, entertainment and business solution customers, and the company has seen surging growth across all areas in 2014, driven by Ooredoo’s expanding portfolio of services and the on-going dynamism of Qatar’s economy.

Mobile service growth has been particularly strong, with Ooredoo now supporting more than 2.5 million mobile customers in Qatar. Ooredoo has successfully grown its base of post-paid customers over the past year, as Shahry has emerged as the fastest-growing mobile service in the country.

One of the most important factors driving the growth of Ooredoo’s customer base has been the rising use of data across business and customers throughout Qatar. Ooredoo is the data market leader in the leader, with 26 per cent year-on-year data revenue growth and 80 per cent mobile broadband penetration at the end of 2013.

Ooredoo passed the milestone of more than 100,000 fibre customers at the end of 2013. Ooredoo’s investment in Fibre will continue throughout 2014.

Huawei has seen the number of smartphones it sold jump 123 per cent in the big five European markets over the past year, and now holds three per cent share, securing a five per cent holding in both the German and Spanish markets.

Wiko, which also saw triple digit growth across Europe, holds an eight per cent share in France and is pushing ahead with expansion across untapped parts of Europe.

The UK market has not yet experienced the same levels of fragmentation as its European counterparts, but with Wiko set to make a push in the UK this year it will be interesting to see if it follows suit.

In China, local vendor Xiaomi outsold Samsung for the second time in April. Its budget Xiaomi RedMi was the top selling smartphone in China – the world’s largest smartphone market. Some 41 per cent of consumers who bought the Xiaomi RedMi were first time smartphone buyers, while 23 per cent were captured from Samsung by churning consumers.

OS shares across Europe have stabilised with Android holding its position as the number one operating system in Europe, with a 72.4 per cent share of the market. It is followed by Apple with a 17.5 per cent share, while in third place; Windows’ European market share stands at 8.4 per cent. In the UK, Android holds 58.2 per cent of the market and iOS 30.2 per cent, while Windows accounts for 9.5 per cent.

Etisalat has cancelled its offer to buy out the minority shareholders in Maroc Telecom after securing a special waiver from the local stock exchange.

Etisalat recently bought a 53 per cent stake in the Morocco telco, and under the Casablanca stock exchange rules was required to launch an offer to buy the remaining shares.

Just 17 per cent of the shares are listed on the stock exchange, with the remaining 30 per cent owned by the government, and it was expected that the stock exchange would offer an exemption from the mandatory offer as it would have reduced liquidity in the stock market.

Etisalat has now confirmed that it has received the waiver, and has cancelled the share purchase offer – which could have cost upwards of US$2 billion had all the shareholders wanted to sell.

Wassim Mansour has been appointed general manager of Touch in Lebanon, the mobile operation Zain manages on behalf of the Lebanese government. Mansour succeeds Claude Bassil, who will be moving to a senior management role within Zain Group.

Prior to this appointment as GM Mansour held the position of chief advisor to the Zain Group CEO for the past 18 months, during which time he temporarily served as CEO of Zain South Sudan.

Mansour’s appointment becomes effective immediately.

Zain has been managing Touch since June 2004, and the operation has a leading 53 per cent customer market share serving over two million customers.