Reuters said STC has appointed HSBC, Morgan Stanley and the investment banking arm of Saudi lender National Commercial Bank, as it prepares to spin off its subsidiary Solutions by STC.
The news followed reports in September which claimed Solutions by STC could be valued at US$2.4 billion if it generates “18 to 20 times its earnings multiples”.
HSBC declined to comment on the latest development and Reuters said STC, Morgan Stanley and NCB Capital did not respond to requests for comment yesterday (25 October). However, it has confirmed the information with “three sources familiar with the matter”.
STC’s product and services development arm, Solutions by STC, has 24,000 clients across government services, healthcare, education and real estate, and the entity “continues to expand to 35 cities in the Kingdom”, its website said.
Solutions’ all-male executive management team is headed by CEO Omer Alnomany.
STC deployed the largest 5G network in the Middle East in 2019 and this year won a 5G contract for Saudi’s new “mega city”, NEOM. The advanced 5G and IoT network will see robotics, AI and human machine interface technologies rolled out.
In a joint statement, STC and NEOM said 5G in the city “will enable numerous segments such as IoT, data analytics, virtual reality, augmented reality, smart homes, and autonomous vehicles”.
In January, Vodafone Group entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with STC to sell a 55% stake in its Vodafone Egypt business for $2.3 billion.
