A consortium led by STC to establish a cloud computing company

The Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has signed a partnership agreement with four companies to establish a limited liability company specialized in the field of cloud computing.

According to ArabiaNet, the agreement was signed with eWTP Arabia for Technology Innovation Limited (eWTPA) and Alibaba Cloud (Singapore) Private Limited Company, Alibaba Cloud and the Saudi Artificial Intelligence Company-Sky and the Saudi Information Technology Company-SITE.

STC said in a statement, that the establishment of the new company is in line with the expected growth and increasing demand for public cloud services and products, and in line with STC's expansion and growth strategy. With the vision of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 2030 to localize hyperscale cloud computing services, the new company will be headquartered in Saudi Arabia.

The capital of the new company is 894 million riyals.

The shares of the new company are distributed among STC 55%, eWTPA 27%, Alibaba Cloud 10%, Sky 4%, in addition to SITE 4%.

STC will finance its share of this investment, amounting to 491.7 million riyals, from its own sources.

It is expected that the financial impact of the new company will be positive on STC in the long term.

The establishment of the new company requires obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals and completing the terms of the partnership agreement.

It is worth noting that the Public Investment Fund is a limited partner in eWTPA through its subsidiaries and owns the entire shares of Sky and SITE.

Saudi Telecom clarified that the fund is considered a related party, as the fund is one of the major shareholders of STC with an ownership interest of 64% and the following board members have an indirect interest In it, they are representatives of the Fund, and they are Dr. Khaled bin Hussein Bayari, Yazid bin Abdul Rahman Al-Hamid, Rania bint Mahmoud Nashar, Ardent Rautenberg, and Sanjay Kapoor.

A recommendation will be submitted to the General Assembly of STC, which will be held at a later time, to vote on licensing this transaction in accordance with the relevant rules and regulations.