Noor Financial Investment Interested in Lebanese Phone Networks

Kuwait's Noor Financial Investment says that it will join in the bidding for mobile phone licences in Lebanon and Qatar.

"We are bidding for a Lebanon licence, and jointly bidding for another licence in Qatar with another operator," in addition to an Omani licence and one in Africa, Noor Financial Investment's deputy chairman Nasser Al Merri was quoted as saying in a Bloomberg report.

Lebanon has two operators which were originally set up under a 10-year Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) agreement, but back in June 2001, the government controversially cancelled the BOT licenses held by LibanCell and Cellis which were not due to expire until 2004. The government then invited bidders to manage the networks on its behalf, and the concession was eventually awarded to Zain and Alfa.

A plan to sell the networks for around US$3 billion each has been on and off for over a year.

The two operators have roughly equal market shares as they are tightly regulated by the government. The Mobile World notes that the two operators have some 1.28 million customers between them, representing a population penetration level of 32%.

Posted to the site on 15th September 2008