Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily) announced appointing Saudi Morgan Stanley as financial consultant for raising its capital by 40 percent to SR7 billion from SR5 billion. Engineer Abdul Aziz Al-Sagheer, chairman of the Board of Directors, Mobily, and Dr. Fahd Al-Mubarak, chairman of the Board of Directors and managing director, Saudi Morgan Stanley, signed the agreement. In the press conference in Riyadh Saturday, they said that raising Mobily's capital has come in implementation of the company's preliminary intention to raise its capital by 40 percent from its current capital - that is, by SR2 billion. This was mentioned in the subscription bulletin when the company was established. Al-Sagheer said that the company will use this capital increase to meet the multifold expansion in its investment activities and future projects. These include what it announced earlier on taking over ownership of Bayanat Al-Ula Company at a cost of SR1.5 billion which will enable it to provide Al-Bayanat services and expand its infrastructure to include Y-max which was established by Bayanat Al-Ula Company in the Kingdom's major cities. This is in addition to raising its stake in Optic Fibers Company project from 33 percent to 66 percent. Al-Mubarak said: “We are pleased that Saudi Morgan Stanley has been chosen as the financial consultant and director for the subscription record for increasing the capital of Mobily to continue the company's expansions. This will contribute in making Mobily one of the fastest growing companies in the services it provides to its clients. I expect a big response in subscribing in the company's shares due to Mobily's attractiveness and the share price.” Engineer Khalid Al-Kaaf, managing director and executive president of Mobily, said that the capital increase will give a push to Mobily to continue providing unique innovated services That give an added value to the consumer and the Saudi market as well as continue expansion to serve the remote areas in the Kingdom. In Mobily's Board of Directors meeting held last Feb. 5, it had approved the recommendation of the extraordinary general assembly to raise the company's capital from SR5 billion to SR7 billion through the issuance of 200 million new shares. The right to subscribe in the new shares will be for the shareholders registered in the shareholders' register according to the percentage of capital ownership at the closure of trading on the day of the general assembly's approval to raise the capital at the rate of four shares for every 10 shares in the company. Each share has a nominal value of SR10. __
