TMT Finance and Investment conference host Deal of the Year Award for telecom companies

The TMT Finance and Investment Middle East 2010 (www.tmtfinance.com/me) takes place at the Sharq Village Resort in Doha between April 26-27. It is the largest annual gathering of telecom and finance professionals in the region.

The Deal of the Year Award is being presented at the conference in celebration of the outstanding transactions that have taken place throughout the year by just one Middle Eastern telecom company and its investment banking advisers.

The shortlist of competing telecom companies was recently announced with over four billion dollars worth of transactions involving Qtel (twice), Etisalat and Vodafone Qatar vying for this year’s title.

“It has been an exceptionally challenging 12 months for raising financing and completing acquisitions so these deals are especially impressive. All the nominated companies and investment banks deserve recognition for completing these complex transactions in such a difficult economic climate,” explained Dominic Lowndes, Editor of Telecom Deal Alert and Managing Director of BroadGroup TMT Ventures.

The shortlist for Telecom Deal of the Year Middle East 2010 is:

• Qtel raises US$1.5 billon via inaugural fixed rate bond
Advisers: Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, DBS Group JPMorgan Chase & Co and Royal Bank of Scotland

• Vodafone Qatar raises US$928 million via IPO
Advisers: HSBC Bank Middle East Limited and Qatar National Bank

• Etisalat acquires majority stake of Tigo for US$155m
Adviser: Standard Chartered

• Qtel raises US$2 billion syndicated loan
Advisers: Bank of Tokyo - Mitsubishi UFJ, Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, DBS Bank, RBS and Qatar National Bank

The short shortlist this year reflects the challenging financing environment over the preceding 12 months with a syndicated loan, a fixed rate bond, an Equity Capital Markets listing and an acquisition announced as the contenders.

The TMT Finance Middle East Awards this year is supported by Qtel Group (Ticker: QTEL.QA) as Patron, Clifford Chance, Booz&Co PricewaterhouseCoopers, Qualcomm, Qatar Airways, Denton Wilde Sapte, American Tower Corporation and Intel. The remaining shortlists for this year’s conference will be announced later this week.

Further details about the TMT Finance conference and registeration can be found at www.tmtfinance.com/me/register

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