DUBAI: Gulf Investment Corp (GIC) will invest $50m in Virgin Mobile’s Middle East operation, a sign that the region may be ready to open up to more competition as the company looks to expand into new markets.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and GIC will be the joint largest shareholders in Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa (VMMEA), which holds mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) licences in Oman, Jordan and South Africa. GIC is wholly and equally owned by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
So far, however, only Saudi and Oman are open to MVNOs, which lease excess capacity from conventional telecoms operators, usually in return for a percentage of their revenue. Reuters
