February 10th, 2022
Via Bloomberg, a report on Saudi Telecom’s acquisition of a Pakistani tower company.
The Middle East’s most profitable telecoms firm, Saudi Telecom Co., signaled a fresh push to expand beyond its core mobile-network business with an investment in a Pakistani tower company.
Saudi Telecom, which is controlled by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, said one of its units had bought a full stake in Pakistan-based Awal Telecom, according to a statement. A spokesman for STC declined to comment of the deal value when contacted.
In 2020, it also proposed to acquire a majority stake in Egypt-based Vodafone Group Plc in a deal that would have been valued at $2.4 billion. However negotiations were abandoned a few months later without the reason being disclosed.
With the aim of diversifying into new areas, STC said this month it plans to spin off its data center, submarine cables and points-of-presence assets into a new firm. It spun off its internet services unit and listed it on the Saudi stock market last year.The firm’s also building out its digital bank, STC Pay, and invested in a $500 million venture capital fund launched in 2017
Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.