RIYADH, 15 March 2007 — Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has signed a $2.875 billion Islamic financing agreement in the “largest-ever syndicated Islamic loan” to fund its rapid expansion throughout Saudi Arabia.
Banks include Samba, Banque Saudi Fransi with Calyon, Saudi Hollandi Bank with ABN Amro, National Commercial Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi.
The loan will be devoted to pay the short-term debt and to finance operations and infrastructure expansion.
The signing ceremony held here was attended by Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) Chairman Abdulaziz Alseghyer, Mobily CEO Khalid Al-Kaf, CEOs of banks and other senior officials.
Mobily has outstandingly been able to get the lowest rate of Islamic financing (Morabaha) ever granted to a telecom company in the Middle East and Africa.
Despite the fact that Mobily is only 2 years old, local and international banks have been quickly responding to the company’s business plan presented to them. Analysts justify this achievement based on the support of its major stakeholder, Etisalat of UAE, as well as the continuous success of Mobily as the fastest growing mobile operator in the region.
Mobily has acquired more than six million subscribers in less than two years of operation and achieved a revenue of SR6.1 billion by the end of 2006, with a profit of SR700 million within 18 months of operations.
Mobily launched its services on May 25, 2005, and in less than a year since then, its customers have reached 3.8 million and more than six million by 2006, beating the record in the Middle East and North Africa.
Today, Mobily network is spread across all cities and major towns. This is in addition to more than a 22,000-kilometer highway covered by Mobily’s independent coverage.
Mobily also launched 3.5G services on June 27, 2006, covering 19 cities in the Kingdom. By the end of 2006, Mobily had more than 500,000 active subscribers in the 3G and 3.5G, thus claiming to be the biggest 3G mobile operator in the Middle East.
In terms of services, Mobily has been leading in introducing new services and innovative packages in the Kingdom such as MMS, LBS, international roaming for prepaid SIM cards in addition to GPRS and GPRS EDGE roaming, as well as other services. Mobily’s workforce exceeds 2,700 employees, with 82 percent of them from Saudi Arabia and was the first to introduce female sales outlets in the telecom sector.
Alseghyer expressed his gratitude to the banks for their response to his company’s proposal and assured to work hard to install the state of the art telecom technology in the Kingdom. Al-Kaf referred to the creativity of Mobily not only in services and products, but also in financing which has adopted new methods of lending based on Islamic laws.