Saudi Telecom to bid for third Kuwait mobile operator

RIYADH (AFP) - Saudi Telecom (STC) announced it will bid to acquire 26 percent of Kuwait's third mobile company, which is expected to start operations early next year.

The Saudi company, which enjoys a monopoly over landline services in the kingdom in addition to its vast mobile-phone market, will present its bid before the deadline of September 7, SPA state news agency reported.

"This is a chance to continue Saudi Telecom's policy of pressing with foreign expansions, and to enhance the possibilities for operational consolidations in the Gulf region," STC's chairman Mohammad al-Jasser said, according to SPA.

A law to establish the new mobile company in Kuwait has set aside 24 percent for state institutions, 50 percent to be sold to citizens in an Initial Public Offering (IPO), and the rest to go to a core investor.

Kuwait has two mobile operators, Mobile Telecommunications Co (MTC), established in 1983, and National Mobile

Telecommunications Co (Wataniya), which started operations in 1999.

In June, STC announced it will acquire a strategic 25 percent stake in Malaysia's Maxis Communications in a deal worth 3.05 billion dollars.

STC was partially privatised in 2002. Since that year, it has been competing in the mobile telephone market with Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates.