$50million Investment in GSM Technology and the Yemen by SabaFon

Two of the world’s largest companies in Communication Technology, Siemens and Banking, HSBC Amanah respectively have now completed contract negotiations to supply and financially support SabaFon, the leading GSM operator in the Yemen, as the company continues to invest in technology that will provide significant network expansion for more customers and exciting new increased valued added products and services.

This week the SabaFon Chairman, Sheikh Hameed Al-Ahmar, signed a murabaha financing arrangement with the HSBC Amanah for the sum of US $50 millions that will be used to invest in the network expansion technology supplied by the world leading Siemens organization.

During the formal signing of the agreement attended by the SabaFon Chairman, Sheikh Hameed Al-Ahmar, CEO Mr Tarik Al-Haidary, and Mr Richard Hodder representing HSBC Amanah, the SabaFon Chairman Sheikh Hameed…. stated “I’m delighted that the leading bank in the world has displayed confidence in his company and in particular in the Yemen GSM market place”.

SabaFon was established in February 2001 as the first GSM operator In the Yemen and during this period the company has developed to be a leading network operator in the region providing large numbers of employment across the whole of the Republic of Yemen.

Underpinning the company’s determination to continue to lead the GSM communications market the SabaFon Chairman Sheikh Hameed Al-Ahmar also stated that he was enormously proud of the achievements that his team at the company had achieved during the first 5 years in operation.

The company chairman said that “Our continued investment underscored his belief in the organization and his demands that the SabaFon customers are offered the very best in products and services that the latest technology can deliver. This investment once again demonstrates SabaFon’s commitment and dedication to provide the best service quality of services for its customers”.

Dr. Jan Cron, General Manager, Vice President ME, and General Manager Siemens Communications Mobile Networks. stated, “as a leading company coping with the latest innovations, and dedicated in its goal to provide the technology to everybody, Siemens is closely cooperating with operators in the region to launch new services and advance the wireless communication in the regions that are not fully equipped yet. As such, we are glad to participate in the continued success of SabaFon in Yemen. We also hope that more accomplishments are going to take place in 2007 as we are going to support SabaFon’s leading position by applying our vision and goal in developing the Yemeni communication infrastructure and the rapid turn to the third generation technology.”

He added, “SabaFon largely contribute in enhancing our success in the region of the middle east, and we highly appreciate SabaFon’s trust in creating strategic partnerships with Siemens. We look forward to maintaining this partnership for the good of both companies. The cellular networks group in Siemens Telecommunication has won a contract to develop, expand, and upgrade the set of wireless communication services of SabaFon.”

The SabaFon continued investment underpins the company’s strong belief that the GSM communications sector for the Yemen continues to be a dynamic and leading market place in the region, The SabaFon Chairman Sheikh Hameed Al-Ahmar said “We are investing for major network and customer growth in the coming years and we recognise that our increasing customer numbers require the leading technical investment required to serve our customers”.

Mr Tarik Al-Haidary SabaFon CEO stated “We have invested across the whole fabric of our organisation and we are proud to continue to invest in our company to provide the very best in quality of service to our customers, we are the leading GSM telecoms provider in Yemen, and we have the commitment to continue to lead the market place and to continue to serve our valued customers”.

Mr Richard Hodder from the HSBC stated “HSBC Bank plc in conjunction with HSBC Amanah are delighted to provide Sabafon with a Shariah compliant export credit facility to fund the procurement of equipment from Siemens.  This is the third facility that HSBC has arranged for Sabafon within the last two years”.

“The conclusion of the latest financing is testament to the bank's continued confidence in Sabafon's performance, strong financial standing and highly experienced management team, and also to our strong interest to undertake more business within the country”.

The SabaFon network investment includes the installing the Siemens EDGE technology by Siemens in Yemen making the company one of the very first to introduce this technology in the  region of the middle east, in addition to upgrading the infrastructure of SabaFon network to send, receive, and transfer data in a higher speed through the package technology as a basis for the third generation services. Siemens shall also implement its smart technologies of ‘charge@once’ and EDGE.

Such developments the SabaFon network will enable its Postpaid and Prepaid subscribers to use a large set of services such as programs and applications built on E-GPRS technology, in addition to enhanced multimedia messaging services, videos, and services of LBS, IM, PoC technologies.

2009