Looking to boost its financial capabilities, Jordan’s GSM operator MobileCom announced yesterday it has signed a dual currency loan facility, composed of $60 million tranche and 40 million Jordanian dinars (JD) tranche loan by a consortium of 18 local and international banks.
The loan facility included Arab Bank as lead arranger of the Jordan dinar tranche while lead arrangers for the US dollar tranche were Citibank N.A. and Societe Generale.
“With the recent increase in MobileCom’s capital base from JD20 million to JD58 million, MobileCom now has tremendous financial capabilities in which to operate,” said MobileCom CEO, Jean-Luc Vuillemin.
Mobilcom, formerly known as PetraCell, is a subsidiary of the formerly state-owned Jordanian Telecom Company (JTC). JTC was privatized on January as 40 percent of its shares were sold to the France Telecom-led consortium and minority partner Arab Bank, in a deal valued at $508 million.
The transaction is part of a privatization process initiated by Jordan's government in 1997 under a three-year program of IMF-backed reforms, which have also secured Jordan’s World Trade Organization (WTO) membership.
The rest of the JTC’s shares are to be divided amongst three partners: the government, which remains the majority shareholder at 51 percent, the Social Security Corp (SSC) takes eight percent, and one percent is to be allocated to a special JTC employee savings fund.
JTC currently has 600,000 lines installed and a penetration rate of 12 percent. JTC's new mobile communications service, through its wireless unit MobilCom, will begin rollout on 15th September 2000. — (Albawaba-MEBG)
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
