30B$ Raised for Middle East and African Telecom Projects

• 2006 was a record year with 14B$ raised for African and Middle East Projects
• 2007 will raise 30B$ more, according to this report from TMC NET

To sort all this out, Telecom financiers will gather at the TelecomFinance Middle East, Africa and India conference in the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai on May 23 and May 24 to discuss further financing and M&A opportunities in the region. The programme will feature more than 30 speakers including:

• Prakash Bajpai, President, Enterprise Business, Reliance Communications;
• Amer Al Rawas, CEO Oman Mobile;
• Salim Bitar, CFO, Motorola MEA;
• Dr Fahad Mushayt, Head of Strategic Investment Unit, Saudi Telecom Company;
• Mohamed Naguib Al Mallah, Corporate Accounting Officer, Orascom Telecom Holding;
• George Kikvadze, Head of M&A, Investments, Sistema Telecom;
• Ananda Bose, VP, CPM, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du);
• Jeremy Sell, Senior VP Business Development, Qatar Telecom;
• Terry Vileski, Chairman, Aircom;
• Bertrand Guiot, Head of Market Development, Europe, BT Global Services;
• Julian McIntyre, President and Treasurer, Gateway Communications;
• David Nataf, Head of M&A/ECM, Middle East & Africa, ABN AMRO;
• Robin Jowitt, Global Head of Telecoms, Transaction Advisory Services, Ernst & Young;
• Tim Schwarz, Partner, Global Head of TMT, Linklaters;
• Ghassan Hasbani, Principal, Booz Allen Hamilton;
• Erik Arveschoug MD, Head TMT, CEEMA, Citigroup;
• Albert Momdjian, MD, Head of Middle East and Africa Investment Banking, Calyon;
• Walid Zein, Executive Director, Goldman Sachs;
• Dr Thomas Tschentscher, TMT Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer;
• Torsten Thiele, Head of Telecoms Project and Infrastructure Finance, Investec Bank;
• Darragh Stokes Managing Partner Hardiman Telecommunications Ltd;
• Marc Chaya, Global Telecom Markets Leader, Ernst & Young;
• Natasha Good, TMT Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer;
• Mark Gregory, Global Head of Advisory Services, Ernst & Young; Adil Chikhi, VP Media & Telecoms, MENA Region, BNP Paribas.

Issues under discussion at the event will include:

• Expansion strategies for the Middle East, Africa and India;
• Accessing local and international capital markets: How to finance growth beyond the Gulf;
• Broadband provision for growth markets: Wireless versus fixed convergence strategies;
• Building a regional platform in the Middle East;
• Greenfield opportunities in Africa and India: and capturing market share in new growth markets.
• Sponsors for the event are Ernst & Young, Linklaters, Booz Allen Hamilton, Investec, Capital MS&L and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
• The official media sponsor for the event is AME. The event is researched and produced by BroadGroup and Telecom Finance.

Here is the Conference Web Site.