BARCELONA, Spain - Hot on the heels of contract awards from Vodafone this week, Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) and Ericsson agreed vendor-financing deals worth a total of 2.1 billion riyals (€410 million/$560 million) with Saudi Arabian operator Mobily.
In a stock market statement, Mobily said the two deals, which were signed at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, would allow it to further accelerate, modernise and expand its LTE, 3G and 2G networks in the coming two years.
The financing agreements were signed with the Swedish Export Credits Guarantee Board (EKN) (1.05 billion riyals) and the official Export Credit Agency of Finland (Finnvera) (1.05 billion riyals) with the purpose of sourcing telecommunications equipment from Ericsson and NSN.
Mobily said the loans will be utilised over the next 18 months and have a tenor of 10 years.
NSN added that the deal would take its total vendor financing for the company to $605 million.
"The fact that we are able to arrange an export credit facility to Mobily for the second time within a year, reaching a total amount of $605 million by 2014, is reflecting our commitment to help the operator to fully address the growing demand from its customers," said Igor Leprince, head of Middle East & Africa business region at NSN.
The company, also known as Etihad Etisalat and an affiliate of Etisalat from the United Arab Emirates, will repay the loans in 17 semi-annual equal installments. The loans carry a fixed interest rate of 2.4 per cent per annum.
For more:
- see this NSN release
- see this stock market announcement
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