Page 24 - SAMENA Trends - June-August 2021

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Financial charges and Zakat reportUnmodified conclusion Cash Flow (EBITDA-CAPEX), to reach SAR
The financial charges for H1 2021 Reclassification of Comparison 2,284 million versus SAR 1,603 million
amounted to SAR 248 million compared to ItemsCertain comparative figures have in H1 2020, representing an increase of
SAR 300 million in H1 2020, representing a been reclassified to conform to the current 42.41%.
decrease of 17.57%, reflecting the decrease period’s presentation. The interim financial statements for the
in SAIBOR. Additional InformationCAPEX: period ended 30th June 2021 will be
Zakat expenses for the current period Capex in H1 2021 amounted to SAR 425 available through Mobily IR App for mobile
amounted to SAR 38 million compared million versus SAR 1,017 million in H1 and tablet devices, and Mobily Investor
to Zakat expense of SAR 31 million in H1 2020. Relations Website, after being published
2020. Operational Cash Flow: on Tadawul website.
Statement of the type of external auditor's Mobily improved its H1 2021 Operational

Omantel Innovation Labs to Push Innovation in

Omani Tech Startups

Omantel, the leading telecommunications designed to fit perfectly into this powered store. Soon, shopping at the
company in Oman and a key role-player in ecosystem and aim to put the company Ahlain Store in Oman Oil’s filling station at
MENA, is excited to announce the launch at the heart of Oman’s emerging culture Omantel’s headquarters in Madinat al Irfan
of the Omantel Innovation Labs, which of entrepreneurial growth, knowledge will be a queue-free, cashless, grab and go
will contribute to Oman’s Vision 2040 and sharing, collaboration and economic experience. Omantel has also successfully
promote innovation and entrepreneurship development through digitization,” said conducted a 5G test using the mmWave,
in new and emerging technologies. Under Talal Said Al Mamari, Chief Executive paving the way for enhanced user
this new initiative, Omantel will leverage Officer of Omantel. Omantel has been experience especially in crowded spaces
its expertise, partnerships, reach, and showcasing innovation possibilities with such as during festivals and events. The
access to technology to build a tech- frontier technologies through numerous trial has demonstrated Omantel’s ability
based startup ecosystem. The key focus recent projects that add efficiency to to deliver multi-gigabit speeds with eight
of Omantel Innovation Labs is to cultivate operations and excitement to everyday cell carrier aggregation functionalities
entrepreneurial skills among the youth activities. Omantel has piloted two major and used a carrier bandwidth of 800MHz
and accelerate the growth of relevant 5G projects in Oman’s transport and at 26GHz. Keeping such developments in
Oman-based technology startups across logistics sector that offer showcase the mind, the aim of the Innovation Labs is
five technological verticals: 5G, Internet use of 5G infrastructure beyond network to build a platform that can generate use
of Things, Cybersecurity, Customer speed and efficiency but also bring more cases for prioritized technologies and
Experience Technology, and Big Data. accountability and streamlining to port facilitate an ecosystem that complements
Located in a 1100m2 facility at Omantel operations. Omantel is enabling the Middle Omantel’s differentiating activities.
headquarters in Muscat, the Innovation East’s first Artificial Intelligence and IoT-
Labs will organize, participate in, and
host multiple activities to support the
Company’s internal innovation agenda by
providing systematic spaces, approaches,
events and activities that can accelerate
product conceptualization, prototyping,
testing and deployment of solutions to
Oman and Omantel-centric challenges.
“We want to support and tap into new
ideas and technologies, stay ahead of the
curve and drive local innovation. For this,
we need to optimally deploy our resources
and create an environment wherein caliber
and opportunities match national digital
transformation goals. Omantel Innovations
Labs have been conceptualized and

24 JUN-AUG 2021