Zain Group CEO Saad Al Barrak is set to act as interim CEO of the mobile conglomerate’s Saudi operation, following news that the current incumbent Marwan Alahmadi shall be leaving the post at the end of March.

Alahmadi is set to leave his post as Zain Saudi Arabia CEO at the end of the month

Alahmadi is set to remain a board member of Zain Saudi Arabia, an operation that launched commercial 2G and 3.5G services in August 2008, and added 2.01 million users by the end of the year, reflecting a market share of seven per cent.

Zain spokespeople are describing the change in top management in Saudi as a planned development, though it is the first time that group CEO has taken the reins of a country operation since ascending to becoming managing director of MTC Group and later CEO of Zain Group. Information received by Comm. almost a month ago had suggested that a re-shuffle was imminent at the top of Zain Saudi.

Zain Saudi Arabia competes with STC and Mobily in the mobile space in Saudi.

“With the robustness of the Saudi economy playing a decisive role, we are very confident that Zain Saudi Arabia will be a shining star among the Zain group of companies and we expect that the huge investment in the brand and network to date will see even better results for 2009 and beyond,” commented Al-Barrak recently.

France Telecom (FT) launched mobile services in Uganda yesterday under the brand of Orange, making it the operator’s 15^th subsidiary in Africa. Earlier this month Comm. reported that FT was racing to launch services in the East African country before the end of the first quarter.

In addition to initial investments, Orange Uganda has committed €200 million (US$253 million) over the coming three years, with the GSM network to be expanded to provide nationwide coverage, as well as 3G services.

Orange Uganda’s launch offers include a national flat rate per second or per minute, a range of international tariffs and a call-back service. 3G broadband will be offered within the next few months.

The launch of operations follows the acquisition by France Telecom of a 53 per cent stake in the licensee Hits Telecom Uganda in November last year. The universal service licence allows the operation of a range of access technologies including GSM, WCDMA and WiMAX, and also permits the licensee to deploy an international gateway.

Uganda is currently served by MTN, Zain, Uganda Telecom and Warid, with Uganda Telecom the only 3G provider at present. The population comes to 30 million people, with a mobile penetration level of 27 per cent.

Other Orange subsidiaries in Africa are Egypt (Mobinil), Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Cameroon, Madagascar, Botswana, Mauritius (Cellplus), Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Bissau, Kenya and Niger. Globally, Orange has a customer base of 123 million subscribers.

Orange Uganda guns for Q1 launch

FT hands Hits Telecom Uganda a ‘get-out-of-jail’ card

Qtel Group has announced a record annual net profit of QR2.277 billion (US$625 million) for the full year 2008, a 36 per cent increase from a year earlier. The net profit came on the back of consolidated revenues of QR20.319 billion, a 93 per cent increase from 2007.

CEO Nasser Marafih says the Qtel Group focussed on extending reach during 2008, with a strong emphasis on improving profitability

Qtel Group customers numbered 57.5 million across 17 countries at the end of 2008, up 253 per cent from the end of 2007 when the group counted 16.3 million. The huge growth in subscribers is mainly attributable to the acquisition of Indonesia’s Indosat, which accounts for 37 million subscribers.

Qatar, Indonesia, Kuwait, Iraq and Algeria now represent the group’s five largest markets by revenue, contributing 27, 21, 15, 14 and nine per cent respectively.

The operator’s home market of Qatar continued to perform strongly with an active subscriber base of 1.9 million customers, and revenues of QR5.4 billion. Operating under the Asiacell brand in Iraq, Qtel’s subscribers grew 42 per cent to 6.1 million, while Nawras in Oman commands 47 per cent market share with 1.5 million active customers.

Regarding Q408 results, Qtel Group posted a net profit of QR446 million, representing a growth rate of 19 per cent from QR375 million in Q407, while revenues grew 74 per cent to QR6.045 billion.

As a result of the company’s solid results, the board has recommended a 100 per cent cash dividend to be distributed to shareholders, worth QR10.

“One of our most significant achievements in 2008 was that even as we extended our regional reach, we continued to enhance our profitability… It is particularly pleasing to see that this continued, strong growth has come from both the traditional and newer parts of the Qtel family. Our operations here at home in Qatar have continued to deliver solid growth in 2008, and we enter 2009 confident in our position as competition comes on-stream,” stated CEO of Qtel Group, Nasser Marafih.

“Furthermore, our operations in Indonesia, which are the newest additions to our group, have further consolidated their already strong position. Indosat now commands 28.7 percent of Indonesia’s mobile market: A market that holds great potential for future growth,” Marafih added.

The launch of Atheeb’s WiMAX network across Saudi Arabia as the second fixed-line provider is “imminent”, Atheeb’s vice president of information technology, Craig Humphreys, told Comm. today.

Speaking on the sidelines of the TM Forum in Dubai, Humphreys confirmed that Atheeb has been commercially registered, and will launch voice and data services under the brand name of ‘Go’. He would not state how many customers Atheeb is targeting, however, he did assert the company has “lofty ambitions”.

“We aim to serve all our customers within three minutes. From the moment they are in a retail store and decide to purchase, to the moment they leave the premises, the whole process will take three minutes,” Humphreys commented.

Motorola will provide the WiMAX infrastructure, Wipro has been contracted as the systems integrator, and Chinese vendor ZTE will provide the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) and multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) solutions.

Atheeb gained its fixed-line licence at the same time as Optical Communications headed by the US’s Verizon, and the Al-Mutakamilah Company, led by Hong Kong’s PCCW. Humphrey’s said Atheeb is far ahead of the other licensees, as neither have done an initial public offering (IPO) or been commercially registered yet.

Atheeb’s IPO took place last month and was oversubscribed by more than 350 per cent. The total number of offer shares subscribed reached 106,180,300, with total proceeds reaching SAR1.062 billion (US$283.5 million), by 1.3 million applicants.

Atheeb will compete with incumbent STC, which has approximately 4.5 million fixed-line subscribers and 1.3 million Internet users, representing penetration rates of 18.75 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively.

Qtel has secured a US$1.5 billion credit facility, which has already been oversubscribed in the initial phase.  The Qatari operator secured the support of its relationship banks, including The Bank of Tokyo – Mitsubishi UFJ, Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, DBS Bank and The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), as initial mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners, with Qatar National Bank as the initial mandated lead arranger and general financial advisor to Qtel.

Chairman of Qtel, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani, at the award of the US$1.5 billion credit facility

These banks were joined by other relationship banks including International Bank of Qatar, JP Morgan Chase, Arab Bank, Doha Bank and Housing Bank for Trade and Finance.

Qtel’s success in launching the first stage of the facility – which is one of the largest credit facilities, and the first Forward Start Facility, executed in the GCC region so far in 2009 – provides the company with enhanced capacity to continue to execute on its strategic vision to become one of the world’s top 20 telecommunications companies by 2020. This first stage will be followed by a second General Syndication phase.

“With the successful completion of the first stage and launch of the general syndication, Qtel raised more than US$10 billion in the international bank loan markets in just over two years. This achievement marks the largest corporate financing for any corporate in the MENA region and one of the largest in the world,” commented Scott Barton, head of global banking and markets Middle East and Africa at RBS.

“The facility amplifies the strong credit story of Qtel and Qatar, as demonstrated by the strong investment grade rating assigned to Qtel by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch Ratings,” Barton added.

The Qtel Group has diversified internationally into 17 countries, with established operations in Gulf neighbors including Kuwait and Oman, and growth potential in major emerging markets including Indonesia, Iraq, Algeria, and Tunisia.