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GCC telecom companies invest $33b in cross-border M&A deals

DUBAI — Telecom operators from the Gulf Cooperation Council, on an aggressive global expansion drive to thrive through increasing domestic competition, have invested more than $33 billion in cross-border mergers and acquisitions activity in five years, a new study reveals.

“Gulf telecom firms were operating in only six markets outside their home countries before 2004. Today, this number stands at 78, with government policies in Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries stimulating this drive for corporate globalisation,” said Karim Sabbagh, a partner at Booz & Company, 
in a study.

Along with the growing profitability and financial strength of GCC operators, competition in their home markets also intensified, leading to a surge in globalisation, as operators sought growth through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), the study pointed out.

Fuelled by this globalisation trend, M&A deals in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region alone have the potential to breach the $30 billion mark in 2010 subject to the successful sale of Zain Africa, according to another expert.

According to Dominic Lowndes, organiser of TMT Finance Middle East 2010, the potential deals that are being discussed among the investment community in the region include Zain Africa, Orascom Algeria, Meditel Morocco, Korek Telecom, infrastructure and tower assets of Zain Africa, MTN, Cell C, Millicom and Saudi Telecom Corp; the potential privatisations of Turk Telecom and Batelco, as well as mobile licence sales 
in Lebanon.

“There is a range of telecom assets worth up to $30 billion being considered for sale in the Mena region alone, and plenty of aggressive buyers from the Gulf and Asia with the appetite and the capital to make the deals happen.

“Although uncertain price levels caused by wider market volatility could still delay deals, there is the potential for a steady rise in activity through 2010,” Lowndes added.

Echoing the views, Orascom Telecom chairman Naguib Sawiris, has said the global telecom industry was set to go through a phase of mergers and acquisitions with the smaller operators likely to be “eaten up” by larger players.


“The next few years will witness major consolidation in the telecom operator market,” Sawiris said. “All small and medium-sized operators are looking for appropriate M&A deals to be able to secure themselves a place on the new world map of telecom players.”


According to Booz & Company study, going global comes with a new set of challenges. “The operators that most effectively address these challenges will be best posi-tioned to capture maximum value from their investments and earn a place among the world’s leading global operators.”

The leaders of GCC operators can ensure successful global growth by ensuring that their companies are properly positioned, to capture the maximum value from their international investments, said Sabbagh. He argued that as operators pursue global expansion, their market and operational footprints tend to evolve in three stages: from a domestic focus to a regional focus to a global focus — most GCC operators are in the first two stages of this evolution.

There are five sets of challenges that GCC operators need to address in their quest to go fully global: governance models, organizational models, management processes, values and culture, and talent management.

GCC operators, to successfully compete globally, will have to elevate governance from its current oversight role to a vital mechanism for streamlining the strategic planning process across subsidiaries, thus creating alignments and generating value within the entire group, according to Mohamad Mourad, a principal at Booz & Company.

· issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com