Pierre Mattei

The journey from state-owned telecoms company to being a listed company really started on 23rd January 2000 when France Telecom and Arab Bank acquired a 40% strategic stake in Jordan Telecom for $508m. This investment also brought life-long France Telecom man Pierre Mattei to the job of chief executive officer.

But internationally telecom shares are now suffering in the wake of the WorldCom and related disasters. Is this a good time for an IPO in the telecoms sector?

'The difference is that we are in an emerging market,' he told AMEInfo. 'Emerging markets are more stable because telecoms companies have not been buying up other companies. We have no debt at Jordan Telecom and are not a dot-com. We are a cool company.

'Since France Telecom's investment we have been like a big brother to Jordan Telecom, offering huge expertise and we have not just concentrated on developing mobile services but have upgraded the fixed line network as well. We also have a fast and cheap Internet service, and 512k and 1024k ADSL.'

This sounds like a model that other regional telecom companies could follow, Bahrain and Oman for example are looking for strategic partners. Would France Telecom go down this route again?

Mr. Mattei shrugs and says, 'The world has changed for telecoms companies and we just do not have the same capital available to invest. It depends on the situation, but I think in general it is probably too late. They would not get the investment now'.

That leaves Jordan Telecom with a very strong franchise to offer investors this autumn, and also underlines the competitive advantage that an early mover with strategic investment can secure. The company is going about raising its profile in the manner to be expected of any pre-IPO situation.

'On 16th July we will be hosting the largest regional telecoms conference with 1,000 delegates and in the presence of His Majesty the King,' says Mr Mattei. 'This will be a showcase for IT products and services and we have an influential line-up of business speakers'.

Meanwhile, Jordan Telecom has founded a third subsidiary, e-dimension, to handle all things to do with the Internet, vis-à-vis e-news, e-commerce, e-learning, e-government, ASP and an Internet Content Delivery Network.

'We are completely e-ready with e-dimension,' says Mr Mattei. 'We are the first company in the region with ICDN which uses local and international bandwidth to maximize access to a server. And we are working hand-in-hand with Dubai on e-government to share experience in this area'.

'With the backing of France Telecom the sky is the limit for Jordan Telecom. We have a great strategic partnership and I think that this will continue to be strength for the company in the coming years.'

He is probably right. With no debt and good growth prospects Jordan Telecom is about as solid as investments come, and its IPO is likely to be substantially oversubscribed.