Mobily expects market share to exceed 40%

Riyadh: Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), Saudi Arabia's second-largest mobile phone operator, said on Saturday it expects its market share to rise above 40 per cent in 2008 despite the arrival of a third operator.

The company had 11.1 million customers at the end of 2007, giving it a market share of 39 per cent, chief executive Khalid Al Kaf said.

"We expect this market share to exceed 40 per cent in 2008," he said.

Mobily, which started operations in May 2005, competes with Saudi Telecom, the largest Arab telecom firm by market value, for mobile phone users in the kingdom.

Zain Saudi Arabia, an affiliate of Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co, plans to start operations next month after selling shares to the public in the first quarter.

Mobily plans to focus on developing the post-paid base, Kaf said. "About 25 per cent of our 2007 revenues was from post-paid clients and the remainder from pre-paid clients," he said.

Mobily also expects the first net income from Bayanat Al Oula by the end of next year, he said on the sidelines of the news conference marking the start of Mobily's fourth year of operations.

Mobily agreed in Sep-tember to buy 99.9 per cent of the data provider company for 1.5 billion riyals ($400 million). "Bayanat will start operating a WiMax wireless internet network this year," he said.

A 40 per cent increase of Mobily's capital will be completed within two months, Al Kaf said. Chairman Abdul Aziz Al Sughayir told shareholders in March that the capital hike would be completed in May.

Mobily made a first-quarter net profit of 326 million riyals, a 30 per cent rise from the year-earlier period.