The Dhabi Group is an investment company led by members of the Abu Dhabi royal family. Through its subsidiary named Warid Telecom, the Dhabi Group owns mobile networks in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Congo, Uganda and Cote d’Ivoire. Essar Group will solely invest in the African operations in Congo and Uganda. Standard Chartered Bank is acting as exclusive financial advisor to the Dhabi Group. In July this year Essar had bought majority stake in Econet Wireless Kenya, offering mobile services in that country under the “yu” brand name. The company already has around 6,00,000 subscribers.

on its network and expects the number to grow significantly as it completes it roll out across Kenya by end of the year.

Back home, Essar holds 33% stake in Vodafone-Essar, which is a joint venture with the Vodafone Group, and is the country’s second largest GSM operator with over 80 million subscribers.

The group owns Essar Telecom Infrastructure, one of the largest independent telecom tower infrastructure providers in India and operates an outsourcing services business under the Aegis brand, with over 33,000 employees globally across 32 delivery centres in the Philippines, Costa Rica, US, Africa and India.

Dhabi Group and its chairman, HH Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, lead a consortium of investors composed of private equity and family offices in the region. The Group has diversified business interests with a focus on emerging market opportunities in financial services, telecommunications and real estate.