UAE based Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) has confirmed that it is still in talks to take a stake in an Iraqi mobile operator, and that the company is looking forward to "very positive" financial results for the third quarter.

"It is Iraq but it is not yet finalised. We will shortly announce it," Etisalat chairman Mohammed Omran told the Gulf Daily News on the sidelines of a news conference. "Etisalat will shortly announce its third quarter results. Our results are very positive," he said declining to elaborate due to stock market regulations.

Rumours that Etisalat was seeking to enter the Iraqi market originally surfaced earlier this year, when the company was said to be in talks with an unnamed Kurdish operator - almost certainly Korek Telecom, being the only independent operator in the country which Etisalat could hope to enter into a partnership with.

The country has three operators, Zain, Asiacell  and Korek Telecom.

Asiacell is actually a consortium is comprised of Asiacell Iraq - the earlier license holder, Qatar's Qtel  and investment banking group, MerchantBridge.

Orascom owned the Iraqna network, but failed to get an operating license in the last round of auctions and had tried to set up a joint venture with Korek Telecom but that fell apart. The break-down has left Korek with a national license, but coverage which is limited to mainly the Northern region of the country. An expansion to national coverage would need the financial muscle of an outside partner.

Iraqna was later sold to Zain.

Source: Gulf Daily News