KARACHI: Pakistan’s largest conglomerate Engro Corp, through it’s strategic partnership with Veon, is eyeing expanding telecom tower-sharing coverage in Pakistan and exploring different use cases in telecom infrastructure.
“Pakistan is a very large market in terms of telecom, which keeps growing larger,” Samad Dawood, vice chairman of Dawood Hercules Corp, which owns 40 percent of Engro Corp, told Reuters.
“This infrastructure business, with scale, allows us to utilize telecom infrastructure better in Pakistan and eventually also serve international markets as well,” said Dawood, identifying countries from “the Atlantic coast of Morocco all the way to Central Asian states” as potential markets.
Engro and Dutch telecommunication and digital services company Veon announced last week plans to pool and manage their infrastructure assets in Pakistan.
The companies plan expanding tower sharing coverage to other operators and looking into to other use cases, which could include electronic vehicle charging and drone landing.
Under the partnership, Engro will pay Jazz, Veon’s digital operator in Pakistan, $188 million and will guarantee the repayment of Deodar’s intercompany debt of $375 million.
This remains subject to corporate and regulatory approvals.
Deodar, under Veon, has a total tower count of 10,500 in Pakistan, while Engro’s existing tower count under Engro Enfrashare is 4,063 towers according to Topline Securities.
Earlier this year, Engro’s Dawood said restructuring would allow the firm to tap into broader economic opportunities, citing a challenging macroeconomic environment as a reason for the company’s restructuring.
Pakistan is navigating a challenging economic recovery path, having completed a $3 billion IMF bailout in April and now undertaking a $7 billion, 37-month bailout, approved in September, to ensure macroeconomic stability.
However, Dawood now says that things have changed, which have led to Engro’s largest transaction in Pakistani rupee terms.
“The actions taken in Pakistan over the last few quarters, along with hard decisions for macroeconomic stability, have led to this deal,” he said, adding that interest rates and inflation falling, combined with Pakistan’s ongoing IMF program, have also helped.”
Pakistan slashed interest rates to 15 percent in November from a record high of 22 percent earlier this year. Inflation has slowed down to 4.9 percent in November, from a multi-decade high of almost 40 percent in 2023.
“The incoming macro stability and IMF’s seal of approval has a huge impact on foreign financiers to look at Pakistan as an invest-able market,” Dawood said.
Pakistan’s largest conglomerate Engro Corp. eyes tower sharing expansion with Veon tie-up
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Pakistan’s largest conglomerate Engro Corp. eyes tower sharing expansion with Veon tie-up
- The companies plan expanding coverage to other operators and looking into other use cases, including electronic vehicle charging and drone landing
- Under the partnership, Engro will pay Jazz, Veon’s digital operator in Pakistan, $188 million and guarantee repayment of Deodar’s $375 million debt
Pakistan condemns Sudan attack that killed Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers, calls it war crime
- Six peacekeepers were killed in a drone strike in Kadugli as fighting between Sudan’s army and the RSF grinds on
- Pakistan, a major troop contributor to the UN, says perpetrators of the attack must be identified, brought to justice
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday extended condolences to the government and people of Bangladesh after six United Nations peacekeepers from the country were killed in a drone strike in southern Sudan, condemning the attack and describing it as a war crime.
The attack took place amid a full-scale internal conflict that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group, following a power struggle after the collapse of Sudan’s post-Bashir political transition.
Omar Al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for nearly three decades, was ousted by the military in 2019 after months of mass protests, but efforts to transition to civilian rule later faltered, plunging the country back into violence that has since spread nationwide.
The drone strike hit a logistics base of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state, on Saturday, killing the Bangladeshi peacekeepers. Sudan’s army blamed the RSF for the attack, though there was no immediate public claim of responsibility.
“Pakistan strongly condemns the attack on @UNISFA in Kadugli, resulting in the tragic loss of 6 Bangladeshi peacekeepers & injuries to several others,” the country’s permanent mission to the UN said in a social media message. “We honor their supreme sacrifice in the service of peace, and express our deepest condolences to the government and people of #Bangladesh.”
“Such heinous attacks on UN peacekeepers amount to war crimes,” it added. “Perpetrators of this horrific attack must be identified and brought to justice. As a major troop-contributing country, we stand in complete solidarity with all Blue Helmets serving the cause of peace in the perilous conditions worldwide.”
According to Pakistan’s UN mission in July, the country has deployed more than 235,000 peacekeepers to 48 UN missions across four continents over the past eight decades.
Pakistan also hosts one of the UN’s oldest peacekeeping operations, the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), and is a founding member of the UN Peacebuilding Commission.
More than 180 Pakistani peacekeepers have lost their lives while serving under the UN flag.
Pakistan and Bangladesh have also been working in recent months to ease decades of strained ties rooted in the events of 1971, when Bangladesh — formerly part of Pakistan — became independent following a bloody war.
Relations have begun to shift following the ouster of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina last year amid mass protests.
Hasina later fled to India, Pakistan’s neighbor and arch-rival, creating space for Islamabad and Dhaka to rebuild their relationship.
