JEDDAH, 17 January 2004 — In a deal between House of Integrated Technologies and BMG Financial Advisors, a private placement of 33 percent of 4RUN equity — to a value of SR38 million — has been placed on the market
Basil Al-Ghalayini, CEO of BMG Financial Advisors, the financial advisor on the deal, said that the setup of 4RUN, a chain of retail outlets focusing on telecom and related products, has already established 22 out of 720 outlets which are planned over the next five years across the Kingdom, is the start of the buildup. 4RUN aspires toward meeting the needs of suppliers in the telecom and technology industries as well as some government entities lacking the means efficiently to reach the end users of their services. It also hopes to create clients through investment in R&D and e-business services.
Al-Ghalayini clarified that 4RUN is expected to receive wide interest from followers of the evolving Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) sector, in both the private and public domain. The immediate future will witness structural changes in several economic sectors in the Kingdom, reflecting the government’s direction to give the private sector a leading role and participation in these sectors which until recently have been considered government monopolies. This government strategy reflects a world trend in removing monopolies.
Examples of the benefits of these structural changes, Al-Ghalayini are the effort of the CITS in putting an end to the monopoly of STC as the only provider of mobile services in Saudi Arabia and the opening up competition in this sector through the granting of a second and potentially third license to other operators.