Tanmia acquires 32 per cent stake in Awasr

Business Tuesday 09/January/2018 18:04 PM
By: Times News Service
Tanmia acquires 32 per cent stake in Awasr

Muscat: Oman National Investments Development Company (Tanmia) has signed an agreement with Awasr to acquire a 32 per cent stake in the Omani based company.
Awasr, Oman’s first 100 per cent fibre-optic network service provider, has, within a span of two years, established its mark in the business of Internet as a fastest growing provider with a reach and network that has introduced choice, ease and convenience for customers from all walks of life. Awasr has been recently awarded as the fastest fixed broadband network in Oman from Ookla, the company behind speedtest.net.
The signing ceremony was held at the head office of Awasr in the Knowledge Oasis Muscat (KOM) and was attended by His Highness Sayyid Taimur bin As’ad bin Tariq Al Said, the chairman of Awasr, Abdulsalam Al Murshidi, chairman of Tanmia, Sheikh Rashid Al Saadi, chief executive officer Tanmia and Abdulmonem Al Futaisi, chief operating officer of Awasr.
Under the deal, Tanmia will invest in Awasr through a combination of equity purchase from the current owners and a capital increase to finance new development projects and enhance the expansion strategy.
“Awasr continues to grow strongly in the market and we are proud to join hands with Tanmia, a strong and visionary partner, towards enabling the vision of the company to lead in creativity and innovation to enable our customers to unlock the power and possibilities on the Internet,” said His Highness Sayyid Taimur bin As’ad bin Tariq Al Said.
“Tanmia considers Awasr as a long-term strategic investment, and has monitored closely how Awasr has been performing in the market and has also gone into the strategic details of how Awasr plans to evolve in the telecom sector in Oman, this has given us confidence in acquiring shares in Awasr that will support the future goals of the company and will show great benefit to the Sultanate of Oman”, said Abdulsalam Al Murshidi.
“The agreement is the result of several discussions and negotiations, and it comes in light of the Sultanate's continuous efforts provide a world class internet and fixed infrastructure throughout Oman as part of the National Broadband Strategy, ” Sheikh Rashid Al Saadi, added.
Having launched its operations in March 2016, Awasr has wasted no time in meeting its set targets, even crossing the established parameters to reinvent the concepts of speed for users in and around Muscat, with its fibrenet packages. Awasr has recently also signed an agreement with SAP to provide the HANA Enterprise Cloud services in Oman.
“This acquisition is a major milestone for Awasr as it serves our goals to establish ourselves as a major player in the telecommunication market in the Sultanate of Oman. We have, in less than two years, been able to reinvent the Internet market in Oman with our offerings and we aim to continue this innovation path in the future,” Al Futaisi said.
Awasr now provides high-speed Internet services to both residential and business sectors in Oman. Currently covering several location in Muscat starting from Al Maabilah, Al Mawaleh, Al Khoudh, As’Seeb, Al Hail, Wadi Al Lawami, Azaiba, Al Ghoubra all the way to Al Qurum, Shati Al Qurum, Al Wadi Al Kabir, Wadi Adai, Al Hamriya and some parts of Darsait.
“Our plan this year is to extend our services outside of Muscat to be able to provide customers with high speed internet services in different parts of Oman” Al Futaisi said. “We also plan to introduce top of the line business products that will help the enterprise sector grow with minimum cost impact on their businesses,” he added.
Within this year Awasr plans to introduce several services that includes fixed voice and other value added to support both residential and business sectors within the country. Since it started rolling out services in 2015, Awasr has emerged as the pioneering technological innovator supporting the National Broadband Strategy to overcome the low levels of fixed broadband penetration within Oman. Today, the young company was the first to offer the fast Internet speed of 1 Gbps in the Sultanate, empowering the community and creating new opportunities to achieve sustainable growth.