RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s TAWAL, one of stc subsidiaries, has entered Pakistan’s market through the full acquisition of AWAL Telecom, in a move that marks the company’s first International expansion outside the Kingdom. The deal is to see AWAL rebranded as TAWAL Pakistan and form the launchpad of TAWAL’s operations in the country following the regulatory approval from the Pakistani authorities. “Pakistan is an exciting market with high growth potential, and TAWAL is looking forward to extending our digital transformation and ICT infrastructure development capabilities to the country,” Mohammed Alhakbani, CEO at TAWAL, said. “The country is witnessing growing mobile service penetration, which is creating infrastructural demand that TAWAL is ideally placed to address,” he added. Pakistan has seen its mobile voice and mobile broadband subscriptions witnessing double-digit growth in recent years, with the expansion of 4G LTE and 5G mobile networks expected to drive its market and revenue growth. Launched in 2019, TAWAL is a subsidiary of Saudi telecom giant stc that owns a portfolio of over 15,500 telecom towers in the Kingdom.