MTN Sudan (former Bashair Telecom)

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In May 2003, Bashair Telecom (BT) was awarded a 15-year license to build and operate Sudan’s second mobile network by the state-run Telecommunication Corporation. The license was an effort to break the monopoly of the Sudanese Mobile Telephone Company Limited (Mobitel). BT won the second GSM license by offering the highest license fee among 29 other Sudanese and foreign companies. BT paid US$177 million to the Sudanese Government for the license which it was formally awarded in October 2003. In July 2005, Bashair Telecom, operating under the "Areeba" brand, launched its network in Khartoum. BT was a consortium majority owned (55%) by Investcom Holding, a Luxembourg-based company which was partly owned by the Lebanese Mikati Group in partnership with Syrian investors that had mobile operations in Africa and the Middle East. Other investors holding minor stakes in Bashair Telecom included Yemeni operator Sabafon, Sabaa Islamic Bank, the Sudanese National Fund for Pensions and the National Fund for Social Securities. In September 2005, Investcom Holding acquired an additional 30% stake in Bashair Telecom, brining its share to 85%. In 2005, Investcom moved its headquarters from Luxembourg to Dubai, UAE, ahead of its IPO, which was managed by Citigroup and HSBC. Bashair telecom planned to invest US$500 million over several years to build out a network that would initially serve 3 million subscribers. By the end 2005, after just half a year in operations, the company had 268,517 subscribers. Bashair continued its rapid growth in 2006, serving an estimated 1.07 million subscribers in 2006, making Bashair the second largest mobile phone service provider in Sudan, after Kuwati-owned Mobitel Sudan, and ahead of state-owned Sudani. In July 2006, South Africa's MTN Group paid $5.3 billion to acquire Investcom's mobile operations in West Africa and the Middle East, including the business in Sudan. Capex 2011 based on MTN group annual report: parent capex * subscribers MTN subsidiary / subscribers of total MTN group Capex 2012: Wireless Intelligence Capex 2013: Ibid