Kuwait’s Wataniya Telecom has won the Algeria license to build and operate the third GSM network in the country. Wataniya made the highest offer with a bid of $421 million. The two other bidders were Telefonica of Spain and MTN of South Africa.
Wataniya Telecom is cementing its regional strategy of selectively investing in sound markets with promising returns. Its network will now be in four countries, Kuwait, Tunisia, Iraq and Algeria.
“Wataniya Telecom's Algeria network deployment program will commence immediately with a target of providing a service level expected by the Algerian people within six months,” said Chairman of Wataniya Telecom, Faisal Al-Ayyar.
Algeria has a population of 32.2 million with a real per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $1,855. Currently, Algeria's mobile penetration rate is only 4.5 percent which leaves significant room for further growth. In fact, it is estimated that there are more than 900,000 requests on demand that are not satisfied by the existing two networks.
Launched in 1999 as the second licensed GSM provider, Wataniya Telecom has a market capitalization exceeding $2.4 billion. With over 800,000 subscribers in Kuwait and 380,746 in Tunisia, Wataniya Telecom is a member of the KIPCO Holding group. KIPCO Holding has assets of more than $10 billion under management or control, is one of the leading diversified holding companies in the Middle East and North Africa. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
