UAE's Etisalat Sees Jump in Overseas Revenues

Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) sees its revenues from overseas operations reaching as much as 30% by 2013 as it continues with acquisitions and international expansion, a company executive said. "Our target is in three years to generate 25%-30% of revenues from international operations, but I think it might be faster than that," Group Chief Strategy Officer Ali AlـAhmed told reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference. About 10 % of the group''s revenues currently come from its 18 overseas operations, which include Tanzania, India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Etisalat, the region's secondـlargest telecommunications firm by market value, has been aggressively expanding outside the UAE since its monopoly there was broken by Dubaiـbased du in 2007. The company, which has cash reserves of about US$2.7 billion, said on Feb. 18 there were six markets in the Middle East and North Africa that it was investigating, both for acquisitions or for new licenses-AlWatan