stc Group, the digital enabler in the Middle East, has announced its entry into the European market through “TAWAL”, a leading company in the field of communications and information technology infrastructure, after “Twal” signed an agreement to acquire the assets of the communications towers of the United Group, at a total value It amounted to 1,220 billion euros, equivalent to approximately five billion riyals, making this deal an important step towards expansion at the global level.
This acquisition represents another qualitative step for stc Group in implementing its continuous expansion and growth strategy after its entry into a number of promising sectors and its investments in information technology, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, information security, digital financial services and digital entertainment, as well as its geographical expansion in the countries of Bahrain, Kuwait and Malaysia through its subsidiaries.
This expansion of "Towal" in the European continent will allow the company to own qualitative assets in the digital infrastructure by owning and operating 4,830 sites in 3 member states of the European Union, namely Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia.
The deal will provide a full range of telecom infrastructure services, from telecom towers and small cells on rooftops, to indoor coverage solutions, as part of a master services agreement in which these sites will be leased for a period of 20 years to United Group to provide telecom services. TAWAL will also deploy more than 2,000 additional telecom towers to enhance infrastructure sharing with telecom service providers and work to continue expanding these partnerships.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval in Bulgaria and Slovenia. Upon its completion, the company that owns these assets will be “TAWAL Europe”, as it will be the subsidiary of TAWAL and its arm for expansion in the European continent.
On this signing, Eng. Olayan Al-Wateed, CEO of stc Group, said: “This deal marks the beginning of a new phase for Twal to implement its strategy of geographical expansion in digital infrastructure markets around the world. Our commitment to qualitative investment in various sectors of technology and digital infrastructure, in continuation of the Group's pioneering role in enabling digital transformation.
For his part, CEO of Tawal, Eng. Muhammad Al-Haqbani, said: “We are happy with this step in expanding into global markets through our first investment in the European market, as we aim to provide innovative and effective infrastructure solutions for our partners while providing the best solutions with international quality. The service agreement with United Group is an important step in our international expansion journey.
Towal currently owns a portfolio of more than 16,000 communication towers, supports digital transformation plans, expands its reach to remote cities and regions, and is constantly working on offering ready-made technologies for smart cities such as communication towers and smart poles capable of hosting 5G services and Internet. Objects, internal solutions and small cells.
Okaz (Riyadh)