New telecom deal drivers assessed at TMT Finance Middle East North Africa 2014 Conference

April 8, 2014 - PRLog -- The leading regional telecom, media and tech executives, investors, investment bankers and advisers are meeting in Dubai on May 7 to assess the next wave of mergers, acquisitions, and new investments shaking up the global telecom industry.

Philip Shepherd, Partner, TMT Leader Middle East, for leading global professional advisory firm PwC, is to chair the TMT M&A Panel with leaders from Etisalat, Vodacom, Barclays Capital and Citi for one of 15 key strategy sessions at the 8^th annual TMT Finance & Investment MENA Conference & Awards. www.tmtfinance.com/mena

The conference has been expanded this year to include more sessions on adjacent market opportunities as telecom operators look to invest in innovation and increase efficiency internationally.

“Mergers and acquisitions in the TMT space globally has been dominated by consolidation as operators combat mature markets, high capex, leverage and declining margins,” said Shepherd. “Africa is now seeing a similar shake out in many countries of underperforming businesses leading to potential mergers while the sale and outsourcing of tower assets continues to be a growing theme.”

“While relatively insulated in their domestic markets, the Middle East operators are facing financial pressure in many of their overseas subsidiaries which could result in mergers, sales and tower asset outsourcing.  However the large operators still seek value through acquisition and new licences in emerging markets in Africa and Asia as well as attractive investments in digital assets to drive data innovation,” Shepherd said.

Over 50 speakers and 150 delegates are expected at the conference which also features key sessions on Global Telecom Leadership; the Future of TMT;  Regulation and Policy; Financing Growth; Investing in Innovation; Infrastructure Sharing; Datacentres; Meeting the demand for Broadband; Cloud; M2M; Emerging Markets Risk; Media and Content and Mobile Money.

Participating companies include Etisalat, Emirates Investment Authority, STC, Zain, Vodacom, Lap GreenN, BT,  OSN, MBC, Oger Telecom, TCI, Huawei, Intel, Qualcomm, iMENA, Yahoo Maktoob!, Istakana, Equinix, Orixcom, Neostratus, Tasc Towers, Citi, Morgan Stanley, Emirates NBD, Barclays, Standard Bank, RBS, IFC, Standard & Poor’s, Alcazar Capital, Booz & Company, PwC, Coleago Consulting, Dentons, GSMA and Analysys Mason.

The conference takes place on May 7, 2014, at Mina A’ Salam, Madinat Jumeirah Dubai and includes the fifth annual TMT Finance Awards Dinner recognising the leading CEOs, Deals, M&A Advisers, Law Firms and Innovations in the TMT space.

For more information on the programme and speakers http://www.tmtfinance.com/mena/programme

Register to attend at http://tmtfinance.com/mena/register/