Last month, Syria tendered to sell a third mobile operator license, with a deadline for submitting a prequalification application expiring on Nov. 14.
STC, which made its expression of interest in a statement on the Saudi bourse website, is facing increasing competition from Mobily and more recently Zain Saudi in its home market, the biggest Arab economy.
Turkey’s Turkcell and Kuwait’s Zain have said they were interested in Syria, which has a population of 20 million people and about 7 million mobile phone users.
An industry source has told Reuters that STC could be among the strongest contenders, especially after ties between the Damascus government and Riyadh improved last year.
The two current cell phone operators in Syria are South Africa’s MTN and Syriatel, which is mostly owned by Syrian businessman Rami Makhlouf.
