DUBAI, 24 May 2007 — Saudi Telecom Co. (STC), the largest Arab telecom firm by market value, said yesterday, it aimed to get 10 percent of its revenues from operations outside of Saudi Arabia by 2010 as it expands abroad.
The company is the only one of the five-largest Gulf Arab telecom operators that has not made foreign acquisitions, even after losing its mobile phone monopoly in 2005.
“We announced clearly that we have a strategy for expansion. That will achieve revenues worth more than 10 percent of our income by 2010,” Saud Al-Duweish told Al-Arabiya Television in an interview.
Saudi Telecom is looking for one or two large acquisition opportunities in either Africa or Asia in its bid to set foot in foreign markets, a senior company source said in April.
The company could raise between $10 and $15 billion in debt for acquisitions, the source said.
Saudi Telecom made its smallest quarterly profit in more than two years in the first quarter as competition eroded its margins.
It lost its mobile service monopoly to Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) in 2005, while a consortium led by Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co. made the highest bid for a third mobile licence in March, offering $6.11 billion.
Mobily was able to capture 30 percent of the market within 18 months of starting operations in May 2005.
Consortia led by Verizon Communications, Hong Kong’s PCCW and Bahrain Telecommunications Company in April won initial approval to operate Saudi Arabia’s new fixed-line phone network.
Saudi Arabia is the biggest Gulf Arab telecom market.