Saudi telecoms firm Mobily 7020.SE still sees promising potential in the world's top oil exporter but might also look abroad for acquisitions at some point, a senior executive said on Tuesday.
"There is still a huge upside in the Saudi market ... The market is big and is growing," Hisham Zaki El-Jamal, Director strategic finance planning and investment, said at the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit in Riyadh.
"If there is an opportunity that maximizes value for our shareholders we will consider it," El-Jamal said when asked if Mobily would consider foreign expansion, but did not elaborate further.
A foreign acquisition would mark a significant development for Mobily which has up to now focused on growth in its home market, leaving foreign expansion ambitions to its main shareholder Emirates Telecommunications (ETEL.AD).
Analysts say presence in the Saudi market offers telecoms companies a chance to develop a brand equity thanks to the presence of 8 million expatriates and the annual pilgrimages that attract 2 million to 3 million people from dozens of nations and who use local networks.
Mobily started up as the kingdom's second mobile phone operator five years ago and now competes with state-controlled Saudi Telecom 7010.SE and Zain Saudi Arabia 7030.SE.
To maintain healthy profit growths that has made it analysts' favorite telecom pick in the Atab world's biggest economy, Mobily will focus on boosting revenues from data, including broadband clients, and from corporate and wholesale clients, and on cost efficiency, El-Jamal said.
"We see capex is stable for the moment ... Broadband is still lowly-penetrated. It's a higher-margin business than the voice," El-Jamal said.
Data revenues -- which include broadband and SMS -- are expected to account for 20 percent of Mobily's overall revenues in 2011, up from 18 percent in the third quarter.
(C) Reuters
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