Saudi Telecom (STC), the kingdom’s largest telephone company, has reportedly abandoned plans to bid for Iraq’s fourth mobile-phone licence after delays in awarding the contract.

Ghassan Hasbani, the company’s chief executive officer for international operations, told MEED that they will only be interested in the licence if they receive “concrete” information from the government.

(Sources: MEED, Bloomberg)

Foreign investors’ appetite for Iraq’s stock market is rising before planned IPOs by the country’s three mobile telephone operators, but the fledgling market’s small size means it may struggle to cope with the listings, according to a report from Gulf News.

The Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) is an outpost of private sector business in Iraq, which is still dominated by state-run firms. Market capitalisation of the bourse, which started operating in 2004, is about $4bn with average daily trading value only around $2.8mn.

Successful stock market listings of the three mobile phone firms, Asiacell, Korek and Zain Iraq—a requirement of their operating licences—would be seen as a triumph for Iraq’s effort to create a diversified economy and a sign that it was establishing a stable development path after years of conflict.

The listings could also trigger a fresh wave of foreign interest in the market, which currently is heavily weighted towards banks, accompanied by a range of industrial, insurance, hotel and agriculture firms.

ISX chief executive Taha A Abdulsalam has said he expects the initial public offers of shares to double the market’s capitalisation. But with fewer than half of the 85 listed stocks active daily, such a boost in value could destabilise the market.

“The IPOs, first of all, they should put it in the market gradually,” Iraq Communications Minister Mohammed Allawi told Reuters. “If you put all the shares, the price will collapse for sure.”

Taking the companies public will not be an easy task, however. The companies themselves have been reluctant to move quickly until the stock market is more developed and they can be sure of getting good prices for their shares.

Zain Iraq, a unit of Kuwait’s Zain, Asiacell, an affiliate of Qatar Telecom and Korek, part-owned by France Telecom SA and Kuwait’s Agility, all missed an initial August 31 deadline set by the CMC for their listings, which now look likely to go ahead sometime next year.

Ericsson has reiterated the vast, untapped potential of Iraq’s telecommunication market.

Speaking at the sixth Iraq Telecom 2011, Ericsson’s Executive Vice President for Region Middle East, Tunç Yorulmaz highlighted how the Iraqi market is now ready to move towards implementing Mobile Broadband considering its saturated voice market, increasing GDP per capita and increasing internet usage rates.

During the event, Yorulmaz also reiterated that this move would contribute to Ericsson’s plans for a Networked Society that has already started in the Middle East, anticipating that more than 50 billion devices will be connected by 2020 globally.

The conference took place from 25 – 27th October in Istanbul, Turkey, and gathered the industry’s most influential decision-makers and senior telecom experts as well as regional and international speakers.

As a Silver sponsor, Ericsson leveraged this opportunity to highlight that the new technology implementations in Iraq can fuel the growth of the telecommunication market, and positively impact private and public businesses and government sectors, in addition to enhancing the end users’ experience.

“With the connected world that we currently live in, consumers are continuously in need of enhanced services and experiences and that’s exactly what Ericsson is constantly striving to achieve. With our goal to build a Networked Society, Ericsson is always on the lookout for new partnerships to work hand-in-hand with their customers to provide an enhanced end user experience,” said Yorulmaz.

Iraq’s stock exchange market will double its capitalization to $8 billion once the three main mobile-phone companies operating in the country are listed, according to Taha A. Abdulsalam, chief executive of the Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX).

The three mobile phone operators, Asiacell, Korek Telecom, and Zain Iraq, are required by the terms to their licences to list shares on the local bourse.

The companies have yet to change to shareholding companies, a key requirement and the first main step towards going public on the local Iraqi bourse, but according to this report from Reuters, the regulators have given them more time to complete the process, which initially was supposed to have been done by the end of August.

On Wednesday, the head of the ISX told Reuters that the current market capitalization of the Iraqi bourse could double from $4 billion to $8 billion once the mobile companies managed to list in the coming month.

A commissioner of Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission or CMC, which regulates telecommunications in Iraq, said last week he did not expect any offerings until mid-2012.

The banking sector is the largest on the bourse, which also lists industrial, insurance, hotel and agriculture firms.

The exchange moved from manual to automated trading in 2009 and is open for trading two hours a day, five days a week. Each trade takes around 8 seconds to process.

The Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX), which started operating in 2004 and currently has 86 listed firms after Elaf Islamic Bank joined recently, is one outpost of private investment outside the oil industry in a country still dominated by state firms.

Abdulsalam said the volume of shares traded through Sept. 30 this year was $495 million compared with $337 million in full-year 2010.

(Source: Reuters)

Asiacell has selected HSBC and Morgan Stanley to manage its initial public offering (IPO) on the Iraqi bourse, according to Bloomberg.

Chief Executive Officer Diar Ahmed told the news agency that the company will offer 25 percent of its shares, but did not specify when.

The company, which is an affiliate of Qatar Telecom, is in talks with Iraqi authorities to complete the listing procedures and set a timeframe, he said.

According to regulations, it should also convert from a limited liability company to a shareholding company before listing on the stock exchange.

Along with its two competitors, Zain and Korek Telecom, it was due to trade 25 percent of its shares on the Iraq Stock Exchange by the end of August, according to the terms of its licence.

Reports were unclear as to whether the three companies will be fined for missing the deadline.

Reuters reports that Zain has also begun the process of changing to a shareholding company, and  has appointed BNP Paribas, Citigroup and National Bank of Kuwait to manage its IPO, while Korek Telecom has yet to invite banks to pitch.

Iraq has 23 million mobile-phone subscribers, according to the Communications and Media Commission.

(Source: Reuters, Bloomberg)

Iraq’s three mobile operators are unlikely to conduct initial public offerings until the middle of next year and will not be penalised for missing an August 2011 deadline, the country’s regulator said on Thursday, according to a report from Reuters.

Under the terms of the 15-year, $1.25-billion, operating licences they secured in 2007, Korek, Zain and Asiacell were supposed to sell 25 percent of their shares via an IPO by the end of August, but all three had missed the deadline saying the fledgling Iraqi bourse was ill prepared for these listings.

“To put these shares in the market, it takes time,” Ahmed Alomary, Commissioner of Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission, told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai.

Iraq’s bourse has a market capitalisation of around $4 billion, and average daily trading in May was less than $2 million, prompting analysts to question whether the market is ready for the telecoms IPOs.

The three operators must first change from private companies to shareholding companies, a process that takes at least a month.

“One of the operators has provided a timeframe for the whole transition – it will be 260 (working) days,” said Alomary, without naming the firm.

According to its chief executive, Korek Telecom is unlikely to launch an initial public offering this year.

Iraq is sticking with plans to auction a fourth mobile licence by the end of 2011, Communications Minister Mohammed Allawi told Reuters on Thursday.

(Source: Reuters)

Korek, one of the fastest growing mobile operators in Iraq, has selected Ericsson to modernize and expand its network by a network expansion and service quality improvement project. The agreement will prepare the network for 3G and LTE and further develop Iraq’s telecom infrastructure.

Through the agreement, Ericsson will deploy and integrate new radio base stations across the country and thereby provide a higher performance and a better service quality for the entire Iraqi population.

Sirwan Saber Mustafa, the chairman and president of the board of directors at Korek Telecom, says, “Korek’s focus on providing its customers with exceptional services has enabled it to reach three million subscribers in a very short period of time. Our commitment to establishing a stable and modern network in Iraq, and Ericsson’s expertise will ensure that our customers are provided with a variety of enhanced services in our network.”

As a leader in telecom services, Ericsson delivers more than 1,300 consulting, systems integration and learning services projects in multivendor and multi-technology environments to operators, enterprises and national security and public safety organizations every year. This level of experience along with Ericsson’s ability to execute large scale network expansion and their expertise on the ground was key to the telecom services and equipment provider’s success in expanding their working relationship with Korek.

Tarek Saadi, President – Ericsson North Middle East, says, “Korek’s decision to upgrade its network capabilities reflects its impressive growth over the past few years and also demonstrates the potential of the country’s telecommunications sector. We are very proud to continue our successful working relationship with Korek and hope that we continue to be one of their trusted partners in Iraq.”

The addition of Ericson’s multi standard radio base stations, RBS 6000, and a core network expansion including Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and Mobile Packet Backbone Network (MPBN), will provide a better mobile broadband connectivity and improve the capacity of the network.

Mobile telecom operator Asiacell has streamlined its business processes to improve services to its 8 million subscribers across Iraq with a business service management solution from HP.

HP Business Service Management software gives Asiacell’s IT team full visibility of the company’s IT infrastructure, applications and services as a single integrated platform that can be tracked, managed and controlled more efficiently, a statement said.

Tool consolidation and the automation of previously manual tasks have boosted productivity while cutting operational expense. Intelligent monitoring capabilities expedite problem diagnosis and resolution to keep Asiacell’s operations running without disruption to services, ensuring customer satisfaction, according to the statement.

“Phase 1 of Asiacell’s project to build an enterprise-class management and monitoring system, starting with the IT department, has been100 per cent successful,” said Muhammad Tawfiq, senior IT manager of Asiacell.

“HP Business Service Management software has improved our ability to respond to market changes and provide better quality services.”

“Using HP Software will help ensure that Asiacell experiences no disruptions in customer service as they adapt and evolve with market changes,” said Karim Cheikh Ali, software country manager, HP Kuwait & Iraq.

“Customer satisfaction and superior service is a must in Asiacell’s business, and HP Software will be a key solution to help them pave the way for their flexible expansion in the future,” he added.

(Source: Trade Arabia)