Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), Saudi Arabia’s second-largest mobile phone operator, has said it will buy local internet and data communication provider Zajil for SR80 million ($21.33 million).
Mobily has won approval of Saudi Arabia’s telecom watchdog for the transaction involving 96 per cent of Zajil International Telecommunications Company’s capital, Mobily said in a statement posted on the bourse’s website.
This is Mobily’s second acquisition in less than a year. It agreed in September to buy local data provider Bayanat al-Oula for $400 million.
The Zajil deal will enable Mobily to “provide integrated and highly-efficient telecom solutions,” it said. It did not give further financial details.
Mobily has been seeking to make an aggressive entry into the data and internet segment since it lost a bid to win a fixed-line telecom licence about a year ago.
It launched last year wireless internet broadband services to compete with state-controlled Saudi Telecom Company, which holds both fixed and mobile phone licences.
Mobily announced second-half net profits of SR774 million, up 40 per cent over last year’s results of SR554 million over the same period.
Revenues grew by 24 per cent from SR3.906 billion in the second half of 2007 to SR4.851 billion.
Mobily’s chairman, Abdulaziz Al Saleh Al Sugheyer, said that operational profit grew from SR 800 million at the end of the second half of 2007 to SR964 million, a 21 per cent growth.