Company Insights Etisalat / e& Telecoms Etisalat / e& News Analysis Markets Etisalat’s bet on Vodafone backfires as shares slump Etisalat has made a paper loss estimated at $2.1 billion on its stake in Vodafone due to a slump in the British company’s share price since mid-2022. Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat, a former monopoly now branded as e&, operates in 16 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Yet nearly two-thirds of its revenue is […] June 7, 2023 Analysis Trade Gulf telcos nurse FX losses as foreign expansion sours Gulf telecom operators have suffered multi-billion-dollar currency losses arising from their foreign subsidiaries. They would have to recognise these in their income statements should they ever sell or lose overall control of the units in question. As mobile penetration in their home markets topped 100 percent – meaning there were more mobile subscriptions than residents […] June 6, 2023 Tech Billions being spent to foil rising cyber attacks Cyber attacks in the Mena region are set to grow by 70 percent this year, according to an industry expert. Digital criminals are adopting increasingly sophisticated methods to target their victims, meaning e-commerce operators in the region are spending billions more on security to assure customers their transactions are safe. Jason Lane-Sellers, regional director of […] June 5, 2023 Analysis Banking and Finance Mid-cap stocks offer best dividend yields in Gulf Dividend-seeking Gulf investors are likely to find little value among the region’s blue-chip stocks and should instead target mid-cap companies with steady cash flows and low debt, experts suggest. When interest rates hovered near zero and average dividend yields on GCC stocks were around 4 percent, the difference with the risk-free rate – the return […] June 2, 2023 Transport Dubai considers taxi operator IPO as sector surges Dubai is considering a stock market listing for its taxi operator, as the sector surges back to pre-pandemic levels and attracts local and international investment. The emirate’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is in the early stages of considering listing the Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC) as the latest state-backed entity to list on the Dubai […] May 31, 2023 Energy Aramco dividends outstrip rival blue-chips Saudi Aramco’s payouts of dividends surpass those of other leading global companies, and the world’s top oil producer provides sizeable returns for its shareholders in monetary terms. Aramco listed on Riyadh’s bourse in December 2019 following a $29.4 billion initial public offering that sold around 1.7 percent of the government-owned company’s stock. Since then, it […] May 31, 2023 Tech Vodafone cuts 11,000 jobs after securing deal with e& Vodafone Group announced it will cut thousands of jobs just days after it agreed plans for closer commercial ties with UAE-based e&. Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone’s new group chief executive, admitted the company’s performance “has not been good enough” after reporting a small rise in full year sales to nearly $50 billion and a fall […] May 17, 2023 e& takes $400m majority stake in Careem The former Emirates Telecommunications Group Company, e&, has acquired a $400 million majority stake in Careem. The super-app, which is owned by Uber, offers multiple services such as ordering taxis, grocery shopping and mobile payments. e& has taken a 50.03 percent share of the company, which has operations in over 80 cities, covering nine countries […] April 10, 2023 Exclusive Tech Osman Sultan on Mena’s move from ‘telco’ to ‘techco’ Osman Sultan proclaimed in 1997 he would put “a mobile in the hand of everyone” in Egypt. At the time, even some shareholders at Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (MobiNil), where he was CEO, were unsettled by his audacious statement. Egypt’s telecoms regulator granted him a licence to become the country’s first mobile operator, but […] April 7, 2023 Markets UAE’s telco e& raises stake in UK’s Vodafone to 14% UAE-based telecom firm e&, formerly Emirates Telecommunications Group Company, has increased its stake in UK’s Vodafone Group to 14 percent. The Abu Dhabi bourse-listed company purchased a 9.8 percent stake in May 2022 and last month it upped its stake in Vodafone to 13 percent. The telco maintains that the move is aimed at obtaining […] March 1, 2023 Posts navigation Previous 1 … 5 6 7 8 Next
Analysis Markets Etisalat’s bet on Vodafone backfires as shares slump Etisalat has made a paper loss estimated at $2.1 billion on its stake in Vodafone due to a slump in the British company’s share price since mid-2022. Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat, a former monopoly now branded as e&, operates in 16 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Yet nearly two-thirds of its revenue is […] June 7, 2023
Analysis Trade Gulf telcos nurse FX losses as foreign expansion sours Gulf telecom operators have suffered multi-billion-dollar currency losses arising from their foreign subsidiaries. They would have to recognise these in their income statements should they ever sell or lose overall control of the units in question. As mobile penetration in their home markets topped 100 percent – meaning there were more mobile subscriptions than residents […] June 6, 2023
Tech Billions being spent to foil rising cyber attacks Cyber attacks in the Mena region are set to grow by 70 percent this year, according to an industry expert. Digital criminals are adopting increasingly sophisticated methods to target their victims, meaning e-commerce operators in the region are spending billions more on security to assure customers their transactions are safe. Jason Lane-Sellers, regional director of […] June 5, 2023
Analysis Banking and Finance Mid-cap stocks offer best dividend yields in Gulf Dividend-seeking Gulf investors are likely to find little value among the region’s blue-chip stocks and should instead target mid-cap companies with steady cash flows and low debt, experts suggest. When interest rates hovered near zero and average dividend yields on GCC stocks were around 4 percent, the difference with the risk-free rate – the return […] June 2, 2023
Transport Dubai considers taxi operator IPO as sector surges Dubai is considering a stock market listing for its taxi operator, as the sector surges back to pre-pandemic levels and attracts local and international investment. The emirate’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is in the early stages of considering listing the Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC) as the latest state-backed entity to list on the Dubai […] May 31, 2023
Energy Aramco dividends outstrip rival blue-chips Saudi Aramco’s payouts of dividends surpass those of other leading global companies, and the world’s top oil producer provides sizeable returns for its shareholders in monetary terms. Aramco listed on Riyadh’s bourse in December 2019 following a $29.4 billion initial public offering that sold around 1.7 percent of the government-owned company’s stock. Since then, it […] May 31, 2023
Tech Vodafone cuts 11,000 jobs after securing deal with e& Vodafone Group announced it will cut thousands of jobs just days after it agreed plans for closer commercial ties with UAE-based e&. Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone’s new group chief executive, admitted the company’s performance “has not been good enough” after reporting a small rise in full year sales to nearly $50 billion and a fall […] May 17, 2023
e& takes $400m majority stake in Careem The former Emirates Telecommunications Group Company, e&, has acquired a $400 million majority stake in Careem. The super-app, which is owned by Uber, offers multiple services such as ordering taxis, grocery shopping and mobile payments. e& has taken a 50.03 percent share of the company, which has operations in over 80 cities, covering nine countries […] April 10, 2023
Exclusive Tech Osman Sultan on Mena’s move from ‘telco’ to ‘techco’ Osman Sultan proclaimed in 1997 he would put “a mobile in the hand of everyone” in Egypt. At the time, even some shareholders at Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (MobiNil), where he was CEO, were unsettled by his audacious statement. Egypt’s telecoms regulator granted him a licence to become the country’s first mobile operator, but […] April 7, 2023
Markets UAE’s telco e& raises stake in UK’s Vodafone to 14% UAE-based telecom firm e&, formerly Emirates Telecommunications Group Company, has increased its stake in UK’s Vodafone Group to 14 percent. The Abu Dhabi bourse-listed company purchased a 9.8 percent stake in May 2022 and last month it upped its stake in Vodafone to 13 percent. The telco maintains that the move is aimed at obtaining […] March 1, 2023
