The latest addition to Kenya’s telecoms market, Econet Wireless Kenya trading under the brandname ‘Yu’, has secured a KES35 billion (US$450 million) loan to fund its mobile network rollout, just days after the company’s CEO Michael Foley resigned.

Michael Foley, CEO of Econet Wireless Kenya resigned last week amid reports of unpaid suppliers and a struggle to gain funds to continue Econet’s network rollout

Comm. reported in December that there were suggestions the fourth mobile operator could not finance the rollout of the network in its own right, and was rescued by Indian mobile telecoms company Essar Communications Holdings, a subsidiary of Essar Global, which acquired a 49 per cent stake in the Kenyan licensee.

Local media have reported that Econet has had problems securing credit during the global financial slowdown, adding that since launch in Nairobi in November, the company has offered drastically reduced prices as part of its initial marketing campaign, with little margin for profit.

CEO and managing director Michael Foley unexpectedly resigned last week just six months after he was appointed in the role. Local reports say he quit “to protect his integrity in the midst of a tightening in the company’s liquidity caused by delay in securing credit”, amid reports of struggling to pay suppliers.

Acting-managing director Srinivasa Iyengar said Yu will launch in Mombasa next week and is in negotiations for an infrastructure sharing agreement with an incumbent operator. The company said it has signed 60,000 subscribers and aims to have a subscriber base of three million by the end of 2011.

Safaricom dominates the Kenyan telecoms scene with 82.3 per cent market share, followed by Zain with 17.6 per cent, according to the Mobile World database. Third operator Telkom Kenya (Orange) has recently started mobile services. The country’s mobile penetration rate stands at 36 per cent.

SmartSat, the first private satellite company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region launched yesterday with startup capital of US$500 million, and intentions to bring prices down in the region’s wholesale satellite services industry.

SmartSat’s chairman and managing director Khaled Derbas said in addition to the MENA region, SmartSat will look at other international markets such as Eastern Europe

SmartSat is backed by Smartlink, the private Jordanian shareholding company that operates as a global broadband satellite provider in the MENA and Eastern Europe, and a Kuwaiti investment holding company which has not been named.

The company to be headquartered in Dubai, aims to serve the region’s internet service providers (ISPs), GSM operators, broadband technology solutions providers, television stations, ministries of communication, military agencies and companies dealing with data systems. SmartSat also plans to serve other international markets such as Eastern Europe.

“SmartSat aims to become a leading global private satellite service provider and it is keen to provide high-quality services at competitive prices. Furthermore, it is also our goal to create an environment of healthy competition in the MENA, which will ultimately benefit all consumers in general, and the satellite services sector in particular,” commented Khaled Derbas, SmartSat’s chairman and managing director.

The company plans to leverage the strong performance of the region’s satellite industry, whose commercial satellite-lease revenues reached a value of US$752 million in 2007, according to a recent study by Euroconsult and The London Satellite Exchange. The adoption of HDTV is also an opportunity for growth with worldwide satellite-delivered HDTV channels forecasted to grow to 350 per cent by 2013, according to the 2008 State of the Satellite Industry Report.

Alternative telecoms provider Wana Telecom has won Morocco’s third mobile licence, adding to its existing portfolio of limited-range mobile, fixed-line and Internet services across the North African country.

Morocco’s regulator, the Telecoms National Regulation Agency (ANRT) did not state how much Wana paid for the licence, nor how many other parties bid for the concession.

Wana is owned by Moroccan conglomerate Omnium Nord-Africain (ONA) and said it had committed a “significant investment” as part of its bid. The operator was formerly known as Maroc Connect (MCO) and acquired a next generation wireline licence in 2006.

Morocco’s two incumbents are Maroc Telecom, majority-owned by European entertainment group Vivendi, and Medi Telecom, a joint venture between Spain’s Telefonica and Portugal Telecom.

Morocco had 22.82 million mobile subscribers as of end-2008, representing a penetration rate of 74 per cent, according to the ANRT. Maroc Telecom commands a mobile market share of 63.4 per cent, with Medi Telecom holding 34.7 per cent, and Wana Corporate serving the remaining 1.9 per cent.

Du, the UAE’s second service operator has posted its first full year net profit to December 2008, less than two years after it launched in February 2007. Net profit for the year before royalty came to AED8 million (US$2.18 million), up 100.9 per cent from a loss of AED885 million a year earlier.

Du now enjoys market share in the UAE of 25.5 per cent in mobile and 17 per cent in fixed-line

Revenues for 2008 amounted to AED3.951 billion, a year-on-year increase of 157 per cent from AED1.537 billion.

Active mobile subscribers increased by 104 per cent for the year to almost 2.5 million customers, while fixed-line subscribers grew 72 per cent from 163,000 to 280,000. This equates to a market share of 25.5 per cent for mobile and 17 per cent market share for fixed-line. Du forecast enjoying a 30 per cent market share by its third year of operation.

In quarterly results, revenues for Q408 reached AED1.227 billion, nearly double for the same period in 2007 of AED640 million. Net profit of AED78 million in the quarter was up 151.6 per cent from the third quarter, and up from a net loss of AED147 million a year earlier.

“We start 2009 stronger than ever before, but mindful of potential challenges ahead,” commented Du’s chairman Ahmed Bin Byat. “We are not complacent – either in terms of our market share or the global economic environment. We will continue our focus on innovation and value for money to develop and launch services that our customers want to use. As a result, I feel confident that Du is well positioned to prosper throughout 2009 and beyond.”

Egypt-based Orascom Telecom (OT) has filed applications with the Egyptian Capital Market Authority and the Egyptian Exchange to buy back 7.2 per cent of the company’s issued shares over the next three months.

OT has a potential repurchase plan of London-listed global depository receipts (GDR) and up to 65 million local shares – equating to 13 million GDRs, which have a current market value of EGP1.118 billion (US$201 million).

OT shares stooped on February 5 to their lowest close in more than four years at EGP17.20, down from an all time high of EGP100 in January 2007.

The Cairo-based company has telecoms operations in Algeria, Pakistan, Egypt, Tunisia, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and North Korea. Through its subsidiary Telecel Globe it also operates in Burundi, the Central African Republic and Namibia, and has a group-wide subscriber base of more than 79 million customers as of September 30, 2008.