Emirates Telecommunication Corp, Etisalat

Etisalat continues to demonstrate solid operational performance, both at home and abroad, on the back of strong economic growth in the UAE (FY07a GDP growth 22%) and a combination of high growth potential
and low penetration levels across its international playing field. The company’s UAE operation has exhibited a 7% increase in mobile subscribers, a 17% expansion in internet subscribers and a 2% rise in fixed line users as of most recent 1H2008 data, solidifying Etisalat’s dominance across the domestic telecommunications market.

Etisalat boosted its overseas holdings through increasing its stake in several operations during 2007 and 2008 allowing the company to fully consolidate associated operations into financial statements. The company purchased an additional 32% stake in West Africa’s Atlantique Telecom (AT), bringing its share to 82%, raised its stake in Sudan’s Canar by 45% to 82% after acquiring USD159 million worth of equity in the Sudanese fixed line operator and upped its holdings in Tanzania’s Zantel to a majority 51%.

Mobile subscriber additions in the UAE registered 1.977 million in 2007 versus a population increase of only 0.354 million in the same year, equivalent to a ratio of 5.6 new lines to each new resident. Our numbers point to the addition of a further 2.036 million new mobile lines by the end of this year, and a CAGR of 12.5% over our forecast horizon FY08-FY12.