The deal with India’s second-largest GSM operator is
“definitely not this year,” said Jamal Al-Jarwan, Etisalat’s CEO for
international investments.
R-Communications, which has about 100 million subscribers,
said that it planned to sell a 26 percent stake in the company in June, shortly
after spending about $1.8 billion on 3G spectrum in India.
R-Com earlier said a separate deal to sell its towers
business had collapsed, and it had begun discussions with other potential
investors.
Etisalat, one of the two telecom players in the UAE, is also
considering a possible investment in Idea Cellular, India’s third largest GSM
operator.
“The company is considering different options in the Indian
market,” said Al Jarwan, adding that Idea was one of the “many options” the
Middle Eastern group was looking at in the country.
Etisalat is the only major telecom firm with no presence in
India, the fastest-growing mobile market. The total broadband connection base
in India grew by 3.39 percent during July 2010, up from 9.45 million at the end
of June 2010. The total telephone subscriber base in the country reached 688.38
million in July.
While Airtel added the maximum number of wireline
connections at 2.6 million, Reliance ran in at second with 2.5 million new
connections. Idea Cellular saw 2.7 percent rise in total wireless connection
base to 70.75 million.
Etisalat has been expanding aggressively overseas after
losing its monopoly in its home market. It is presently in 18 markets globally
in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
An investment in India would allow Etisalat to fulfill
Chairman Mohammed Omran’s goal of being an active player in a market that is
forecast to approach one billion users by 2014.
According to Al-Jarwan, the UAE firm “is more keen on
investing in Morocco”. Last year, the UAE operator, the second-largest telecom
operator in the Gulf by market value, failed in a bid to take a stake in
Meditel, Morocco’s second-largest telecommunications firm.
Separately, Pakistan has showed optimism over the resolution
of dispute with Etisalat.
Pakistan’s Minister for Privatization, Senator Waqar Ahmed
Khan, hoped that all matters including issues pertaining to the mutation of
land in the name of PTCL and outstanding installments due from Etisalat
amounting to $800 million would now soon be materialized.
