Emirates International Telecommunications LLC (EIT) founded in 2006, is the primary investment vehicle in telecommunications for Dubai Holding. A joint venture between TECOM Investments and Dubai Investment Group, EIT was given a mandate to grow shareholder value by investing internationally across the telecom value chain.

TECOM Investments and Dubai Investment Group, having a successful portfolio of investments in the telecom sector, decided to join forces through creating EIT to boost and develop existing businesses, as well as to explore new opportunities through a specialised management entity.

To enable EIT to achieve its ambitious objectives, the shareholders chose a top-notch and dynamic executive leadership team to drive the mission of EIT forward. Ahmad Bin Byat, widely acknowledged as the founder and leading visionary behind the creation of Dubai’s knowledge economy, serves as the Chairman of EIT, as well as Executive Chairman of TECOM Investments. Soud Ba’alawy, one of the world’s leading experts in mergers and acquisitions, investment and finance, serves as Vice Chairman. Finally, Deepak Padmanabhan, one of the leaders responsible for creating and building the Dubai Internet and Media Cities as TECOM Investments’ Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer, joined EIT as its Chief Executive Officer.

EIT takes ownership stakes in companies allowing it to actively manage and grow shareholder value in its diverse investments, which include integrated telecom operators, Internet service providers, media and backbone companies.

EIT’s business model is based on two strategic pillars:

Active management:

EIT provides strategic, high-level operational guidance to the management of the companies in its portfolio, including placing executives in critical roles. EIT’s role as an active shareholder enables it to leverage the outstanding in-house expertise it has assembled to provide operational leadership and increase overall profitability of its investments.

Realisation of value chain synergies:

EIT’s unique shareholder positioning as a hybrid financial investor/telecom sector expert, enables it to play a dual role in key areas including business development and deal sourcing, while also promoting operational excellence and effective asset management. Consequently, EIT has a unique capacity to develop highly effective strategies for value-creation programs in the companies in which it invests.

EIT’s initial investments have proven themselves to be successful examples of how the two pillars of EIT’s business model work. The restructuring of the operations of Tunisie Télécom, for example, was fundamentally driven by and based on the unique value creation model developed by EIT.

In Tunisia, EIT executives created and implemented a wholly new business strategy for the company, including developing and introducing a new operating model, corporate governance, procurement methodologies and a organisational chart and business process re-engineering, all of which were conceived of in the creation of a transformation program for the company. This exciting new transformation program, developed together with company buy-in, continues with the placement of a new executive leadership team who are continually assisted and supported by EIT’s dynamic and multi-disciplinary best-of-class resources hired from around the world.

The annual results of the transformation program for Tunisie Télécom were directly felt in the market place, as the company grew its market share in the mobile telecommunications segment by 2% in 2007, reversing its previous trend of market share loss when it lost 10% market share in 2006. Overall, Tunisie Télécom’s revenue grew by 5% in 2007 also reversing the declining trend show by a 3% decline in 2006, providing further evidence of the efficacy of EIT’s efforts as the primary institutional shareholder