By Yousef SABA

DUBAI (Reuters) – E&, the UAE telecoms group formerly called Etisalat, is looking to expand into new markets in Africa, Europe and Asia and in areas outside telecoms such as financial technology as its seeks to drive growth, its CEO told Reuters.

In an interview, Hatem Dowidar stated that the company was exploring various options including acquisitions and listing of subsidiaries. But it still wants to keep control of all its units.

“While Telco is an excellent business and we are still focusing our attention on it – because for us, it is the money-generating cow – long-term growth must be achieved through expansion,” Dowidar stated.

He said that the Telco sector is looking to geographic expansion. This means exploring new markets in Africa, Europe, and Asia, where there’s potential for growth and political stability. He didn’t name specific markets.

The group has separated its business into consumer services-focused e& life, e& enterprise to provide digital services to government and business, and telecoms arm Etisalat, which Dowidar said is the world’s seventh largest by market capitalisation.

It has also set up e& capital to drive acquisitions and mergers.

Dowidar stated that investors would receive a breakdown on how each unit contributed “in the next few months.” Total revenue growth at e& was 3% in 2021, while e& enterprise grew by 17%, he said, adding he expected growth to accelerate.

His statement said, “We will soon make a few announcements about Egypt and Pakistan.” He added that Egypt’s announcement will focus on the fintech industry.

He said that the firm was open to possible deals with large telecoms companies. Due to the high penetration of the internet and the high quality service, he didn’t expect them to be able to penetrate the UAE.

“Given e&’s ambitions highlighted in the new operating model, we may consider raising debt if a suitable inorganic opportunity materializes,” a representative said.

He said that regulators will decide if popular internet-calling apps like WhatsApp, which are long blocked in UAE, will be permitted. WhatsApp and other applications were permitted at Dubai’s Expo World fair.

“We’re ready to take on whatever comes our way… all these applications use data at the end. This might reduce our voice usage but will increase data usage,” Dowidar stated.