The Middle East’s most profitable telecoms firm, Saudi Telecom Co., signalled a fresh push to expand beyond its core mobile network business with an investment in a Pakistani tower company.
Saudi Telecom, which is controlled by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, said one of its units had bought a full stake in Pakistan-based Awal Telecom, according to a statement. A spokesman for STC declined to comment of the deal value when contacted.
The Pakistan deal shows STC is looking to build new business lines and rebuild a footprint outside Saudi Arabia.
In 2020, it also proposed to acquire a majority stake in Egypt-based Vodafone Group Plc in a deal that would have been valued at $2.4bn. However, negotiations were abandoned a few months later without the reason being disclosed.
With the aim of diversifying into new areas, STC said this month it plans to spin off its data centre, submarine cables and points-of-presence assets into a new firm. It spun off its internet services unit and listed it on the Saudi stock market last year.
The firm’s also building out its digital bank, STC Pay, and invested in a $500m venture capital fund launched in 2017.
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