Wataniya Palestine receives investment injection

Wataniya Palestine Telecom (WPT), Palestine’s second mobile operator, yesterday announced its success in securing US$85 million of further funding to support the next phase of its mobile telephony network build-out. The private sector loan draws funding from a wide range of international as well as local Palestinian banks, together with multilateral institutions, providing material support for the creation of a new infrastructure for mobile phone services within Palestine.

It is the first agreement in this field to deliver funding for development from international and local private sector sources.

The senior secured syndicated facility loan was agreed between WPT and the lender group comprising of the Bank of Palestine, Quds Bank, Commercial Bank of Palestine Limited, Ericsson Credit, International Finance Corporation, and Standard Bank. Exportkreditnämden, the Swedish Export Credits Guarantee Board and GuarantCo, a specialist guarantor of infrastructure financing in low-income countries, are acting as guarantors to the facility. Standard Bank is acting as a global-coordinator for the facility.

WPT is owned and controlled by the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) and Wataniya Telecom of Kuwait. Wataniya Telecom is majority-owned by Qatar Telecom.

Qtel and PIF have invested more than US$ 200 million in Wataniya Palestine Telecom to finance licence payments, set up the company and begin the build-out of the mobile telephony network. The launch of commercial services is anticipated by Wataniya Palestine Telecom in 2009.

Last September, the Palestinian telecoms regulator advised Wataniya Palestine that spectrum would be allocated to the licensee, allowing it to launch commercial operations after repeated delays since March 2007.

The Palestinian Ministry of Telecommunications and IT (MTIT) confirmed an agreement had been reached with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), which would provide staged release of radio frequencies, enabling construction to go ahead for the second mobile entrant.