Telecoms UAE telco e& earns $1bn from Khazna stake sale By Pramod Kumar February 26, 2025, 9:06 AM Khazna Etisalat bought the 40 percent stake in Khazna in 2022. G42 owns the remaining 60 percent UAE telecommunications company e&, formerly known as Etisalat, will divest its 40 percent stake in Khazna Data Center Holdings for AED8 billion ($2.2 billion) to Abu Dhabi technology group G42, the telco said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi bourse on Tuesday. The deal will generate a capital gain of AED5.1 billion ($1.4 billion) before federal royalty and corporate tax and the proceeds will be used to reduce debt and boost the telco’s financial and credit profile, the statement said. e& bought the 40 percent stake in Khazna in 2022. G42 owns the remaining 60 percent. Dubai-based Khazna, which develops wholesale data centres, said MGX, a UAE technology investment company, and Silver Lake, a US private equity company, will become minority investors, the company said in a post on social messaging platform X. In January Hassan Alnaqbi, CEO of Khazna, told AGBI that demand is growing for data centres across the Mena region, which is “underserved”. Demand for data centres accelerates across Mena UAE’s e& agrees to buy Serbia’s broadband operator The company, which has 14 working centres, has 10 to 12 centres under construction and four more planned. e& will remain a strategic partner and a “major tenant” of Khazna. Shares of e& listed on the Abu Dhabi exchange closed 0.4 percent higher at AED16.78 on Tuesday. 2.8 percent this year. The stock is 9 percent down this year.
