LAGOS —
Ninety-six hours after a three-week deadline was given to drop its brand name
by Etisalat International, Etisalat Nigeria, Thursday, picked up the gauntlet,
announcing it will now trade under the brand name, 9Mobile.
The decision
to use 9Mobile as the new brand name was taken at the end of a meeting of the
telco’s management in Lagos yesterday.
The network
had debuted with the 0809 number plan in 2008, which may have informed use of
the figure 9 in rebranding the network. The rebranded network, 9Mobile, is also
expected to drop the domain name, www. etisalat. com.ng Etisalat International
of the United Arab Emirates parted ways with its Nigerian partner, Emerging
Markets Telecommunications Services Ltd, trading as Etisalat Nigeria in the
wake of a crisis over a $1.2 billion loan package, which defied solutions. Last
Monday, Hatem Dowidar, CEO of Etisalat International, announced that
“discussions were ongoing with Etisalat Nigeria to provide technical support;
it can use the brand for another three weeks before phasing it out.” This
followed the termination of a management agreement with Etisalat Nigeria by its
brand parent, Etisalat International. Dowidar added that “all UAE shareholders
of Etisalat Nigeria have exited the company and have left the board and
management,” including United Arab Emirates-owned investment fund, Mubadala.
Etisalat Nigeria took out a $1.2 billion (N377.4 billion) loan with 13 Nigerian
banks in 2013 to refinance an existing loan and fund expansion, but four years
later, it was still struggling to repay the loans. Asked if the company will
return to Nigeria, Dowidar said: “The train has left the station on that one.
Being in that market as an investor … are we willing to risk more money
compared to the reward for the long-term? “Etisalat is among the top two in
markets such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt and
Afghanistan.(Nigerian) lenders may try to continue to operate the company until
they find a buyer (or) they may merge the company with the existing players in
Nigeria. Not the first telecom brand change The coming of 9Mobile is similar to
that of Vmobile (0802), though the driving circumstances are different.
Following completion of the first round of GSM licensing, Econet Wireless
Nigeria, EWN, started business with the 0802 number plan on August 5, 2001. All
seemed well, until 2004, when after a shareholder dispute, the company was
purchased by Vodacom of South Africa. Suddenly, Vodacom pulled out of the
country in one of the shortest-lived corporate deals. The company quickly
pulled itself together, and resumed trading as VMobile Nigeria, owned by Vee
Networks Limited. As the year 2006 dawned, subscribers who were just getting
used to the Vmobile brand name could not know that soon another brand name
change was imminent. In May of that year, Celtel International, owned and
promoted by a Sudanese electronics engineer, Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim, acquired
majority equity in Vee Networks. Again, a little over two years after the
Celtel brand had become entrenched, Mo Ibrahim’s Celtel International fell prey
to another corporate investor, MTC Group of Kuwait, which later tranformed into
the Zain Group. Zain effected another re-branding. Finally in March 2010,
Bharti Airtel of India bought over Zain’s operations in Sub-Saharan Africa,
which included Nigeria, and the company was renamed Airtel Nigeria, which it
has been to date.
SOURCE: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/etisalat-rebrands-now-9mobile/
SOURCE: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/etisalat-rebrands-now-9mobile/
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