Few could claim to stand at such a nexus of growth, transformation, and innovation as Hatem Dowidar, the powerhouse Group CEO behind e&, one of the largest and most valuable companies in the Middle East.
Leading a firm like e& through a time of relentless transformation and intensifying global competition is no simple task. But during our interview, Dowidar demonstrates the restless energy and focus required to rise to such a challenge, quipping that the work always starts every day, “Before I get out of bed.”
Given his extensive industry experience, it’s no surprise that he possesses the expertise needed to lead a strategically vital firm like e&. The Group CEO has been in the telecom sector for over two decades, joining Vodafone Egypt in 1999. Over that period, he has witnessed the industry transform beyond all recognition.
“It’s been an amazing journey because the industry has transformed completely. Before, it was about selling safety and convenient calls. Today, it’s about selling the internet in your pocket, the ability to reach the whole world in the palm of your hand,” he says.
Much is made of the technology sector and the impact it has had on society, individuals, and businesses, but this change has only been possible through the rapid transformation of the telecommunications industry. Improving access to data has transformed “not only the way people live their lives, but also the way people do their jobs, the way people study, the way people entertain, and the way people connect.”
e&’s strategy to become a technology leader
In 2015, Dowidar joined e& as Group Chief Operating Officer before his appointment as CEO International in March 2016, and then Group CEO in 2020. That period is significant for the industry, with the rollout of 4G changing how people use telecommunications services. This necessitated e& moving its strategic focus from being just a telco firm to becoming a technology leader.
“When I said we were going to transform from a telco to a tech company, it was because we saw opportunities in many other adjacencies. In entertainment, we became the biggest shareholder in Starzplay. Fintech became an important play; in the UAE, we have e& money, Mobily Pay in Saudi, and Etisalat Cash, which will become e& Cash in Egypt. In all our markets, fintech became very important,” he says.
In other arenas, the firm has expanded, completing its purchase of regional cybersecurity firm Help AG in early 2020 and increasing its investment in the Internet of Things (IoT), best demonstrated by its projects with electric smart metres in Abu Dhabi.
Dowidar lists numerous other enterprises, including cloud computing and data centres, but perhaps the more interesting developments have been the company’s move into the Web3 ecosystem, including blockchain technology and the metaverse.
For the time being, e& is still mainly a telco from a balance sheet perspective – Dowidar admits that “more than three-quarters of our revenues are from connectivity,” but he expects this to change soon.
“We see that while the telco part [of our business] is growing in the single digits, the non-telco part, the tech part, is growing in very strong double digits. Over the next decade, we will probably see the telco part become maybe half or less of our business,” he explains.
Dowidar’s exhaustive list of sectors that the company is investing in raises one question: How does he ensure that they all become a success? The reality is – they probably won’t all be, but it doesn’t matter.
“As with any big conglomerate, there will be lines of business that don’t always get the right rate of return. We believe, though, that because of our experience, the size of the company, and the great team that we have, the majority of these projects will get the returns we want,” he says.
“I think in business, to move fast, especially in a new space, it’s very difficult to get a 100 per cent success rate. But if we get the right 90 per cent success with the right growth, it will be much better than the status quo.”
e& and the metaverse
An example Dowidar points to is the metaverse. Beginning in 2022, e& began making big plays in the nascent sector, launching e& universe at GITEX Global 2022. At the time, the metaverse was the talk of the technology sector – not only in the UAE but globally – after Facebook famously changed its company name to Meta in October 2021.
“We made some investments a couple of years ago in the metaverse. A lot of people saw the metaverse as the next big thing. Today, we still have metaverse products, we still have a presence in the metaverse, but did we get any returns? I can say, no. Did we lose a lot of money? No, we did not lose a lot of money because we tested at the right level of investment,” Dowidar says.
Ultimately, Dowidar’s strategy is simple, and one he sums up in one sentence: “To be in technology, you need to make bets.”
So, what’s the next bet? Unsurprisingly, it’s in AI.
“We are investing in a lot of things in AI. Do I believe it will have the same fate as the metaverse? No, I think AI is a lot closer to the core of what we do,” he says. “We are making a big bet, and we’re investing very fast in AI to ensure that we are in the first tier of technology companies around the world involved in AI.”
Few technologies have evolved as quickly as AI. New versions of AI are launched constantly, with new sets of capabilities, meaning that for an individual, let alone a large conglomerate, staying up to date is extremely challenging.
At e&, the company is heavily focused on building the talent necessary to power its AI ambitions. Four years ago, the company established an AI graduate trainee programme, hiring “top students in AI and placing them in different departments to see how we could apply AI. Even before ChatGPT and large language models, we knew that AI was very important for us.”
On the impact AI will have at e&, Dowidar states simply: “This is going to revolutionise the way we do business.”
The global bet
Beyond its numerous technology ecosystem investments, e& under Dowidar’s leadership has also sought to grow its footprint internationally. At the time of writing, the company is currently working with the EU Commission to purchase Czech PPF Group’s telecom assets in Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovakia for $2.4 billion.
“This is a great business that both has infrastructure and a service company, providing us with a larger footprint for the telco side but a huge opportunity to expand our tech capabilities there too. We believe that when we bring things like Careem and Starzplay into these markets, we can create a much better business case,” Dowidar comments.
The agreement also provides e& with a platform for further expansion in Eastern Europe, a key market Dowidar has his eye on, as it has yet to reach maturity compared to its western neighbour.
The company’s expansion plans don’t end in Europe. In Pakistan, the company is also pursuing a $380 million deal to acquire Telenor’s operations. The agreement, which is still pending government approval, would add almost 40 million customers to the e& empire.
Combining these geographic expansion plans with Dowidar’s vision of transforming e& into a technology firm will be key.
In one example, Dowidar explains that e&’s purchase of Turkey-based cloud services provider GlassHouse earlier this year for $60 million has opened the door to the company’s other products in the country, such as its Help AG’s cybersecurity services.
“This is a great example of how you can get synergy. Because we acquire a company that’s very good at something in the geography, we can then use their channel to sell other services that we have. We can use their know-how in our existing markets, so it becomes a very synergistic type of business and provides fast growth,” Dowidar says.
The geographic expansion plan hasn’t been all smooth sailing, however. In 2021, the company increased its ownership in Maroc Telecom Group (MT) to 53 per cent. Since then, MT has faced numerous setbacks in what Dowidar refers to as “a perfect storm.”
Earlier this year, the Court of Appeal of Casablanca upheld a January 2024 ruling that MT would have to pay approximately $645 million to Wana Corporate for alleged anti-competitive practices.
“Morocco for us was a disappointment. We have been fined by the regulator twice, really big fines. We believe that if anything, these fines were hugely exaggerated. We believe this has resulted in putting pressure on the company’s ability to operate,” Dowidar comments.
“It is a sad story. We are still taking legal avenues to try and appeal. We are working constructively to avoid something like this happening again in the future,” he adds.
The Hatem outlook
The post-Covid era has been one of boom for the UAE and e&, with the last few years marked by dramatic growth and expansion – with little sign of slowing down. However, on a more macro level, the outlook is less certain. Dowidar, however, remains bullish on e&’s prospects.
“I believe that this year, we will continue to see the strong growth we’ve seen in the GCC. We now see economic stability coming in places like Pakistan and Egypt, where we operate, and this will likely result in an overall continuation of the strong results from the first half of the year,” he says.
Looking beyond this year, Dowidar points to e&’s European expansion, noting that it will “really change the look and size of the company.”
His statement does not lack authenticity. Between the Czech PPF deal and Telenor in Pakistan, e&’s customer base will expand from an already impressive 175 million customers to a staggering quarter of a billion.
Given all of these plans, it’s no surprise that throughout our conversation, Dowidar remains focused – making little comment on his personal journey and instead choosing to highlight the “great team” behind e&.
While the full impact of his leadership style, which has clearly empowered individuals across the company to tackle some of the industry’s most complex technological challenges, remains to be seen, e&’s impressive track record over the past decade under Dowidar’s guidance would make it difficult for even the most sceptical observer to doubt that the result will ultimately bear fruit.
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