Charts & Numbers

Following Qtel’s aquisition of Wataniya Telecom aquisitions in emerging markets are extremely tough to predict in light of high valuations and tighter scopes for savings costs, although German telecom giant T-Mobile said it would not rule them out.

“Today, emerging markets seem to be hot, everybody wants to get into emerging markets… But ultimately you will have to pay a premium…nobody is going to hand over control of the business without an additional premium”

- Hamid Akhavan

Any indication of an M&A would surely send the stock markets surging skyward. The companies in the Gulf worth mentioning would be Zain & Q-Tel although both are massive and over priced, but are most advanced in terms of structure and expansion. A surprise aquisition of Zain or Wataniya would surely revolutionize the telecom industry in the middle east. A premium needed to be justified by cost savings, which were sometimes hard in emerging markets. Inorder to compete in the telecom industry companies are forced to comply with forceful takeovers and massive mergers to avoid losing their businesses.