United Arab Emirate’s telecom giant Etisalat (Emirates Telecommunications Corporation) is open for acquisitions in Sri Lanka to complete its portfolio of services, according to a top Etisalat official.
“To complete our product offering we need to extend our value chain. We are open for acquisitions to complete our portfolio in fixed line Internet and television services,” Essa Al Haddad, Chief Marketing Officer, Etisalat told the Business Times on the sidelines of launching their Tigo acquisition in Sri Lanka as Etisalat.
Millicom International Cellular SA in earl October last year sold its fully-owned subsidiary in Sri Lanka, Tigo, to Etisalat in a competitive bidding process.
Now Etisalat is the third-largest mobile telephony operator in Sri Lanka with a market share of around 20%.
“There are many things we would like to have and we have expansion plans for this country and we are looking at fantastic opportunities in this post war era in Sri Lanka," Mr. Haddad said. He said that Etisalat’s scale allows it to buy technology at a low price.
“We are debt free, which is another advantage in our expansion plans,” he added.
He said Etisalat also sees opportunities in wireless broadband in Sri Lanka. “It is very low here – currently at 4% penetration. Wireless broadband can go up to 10% easily,” he said. Mr. Haddad said that in Middle Eastern countries such as UAE and Saudi Arabia where Etisalat is big, there is a healthy community of Sri Lankans. “There’s a lot of synergy we can find there,” he said.
He noted that telecom is an enabler and that telecom infrastructure is what enables foreign investment into a country. “There’s lot of potential here for telecom infrastructure investment. We can facilitate data clearing, cable laying facilities etc. All these are great opportunities,” he said.
Etisalat has already rolled out eight 2G base stations in Jaffna and CEO Dumindra Ratnayake said that more than 100 2G base stations are to be rolled out in the North and the East. |
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