The Vodafone Qatar Shareholding Company (QSC) of the Vodafone Group announced yesterday that Qataris and Qatari organisations who have subscribed to their IPO will have the exclusive opportunity to be the first people in Qatar to choose their Vodafone number. Michael Portz, chief marketing officer of Vodafone Qatar, said the ‘First Shareholders’ will be able to choose their numbers on a prioritised basis. “The people who subscribe first will have the first choice.” Portz said around one million numbers (which included the 40 numbers auctioned earlier by Vodafone) will be available. “We’re keeping a small number for auctions with proceeds that will go to charitable causes. But other than that, all the other numbers are available for the shareholders… almost a million numbers.” “This offer is to reward and thank our shareholders for helping us build our business. We wanted to give this unique bonus to our first shareholders so they can choose their numbers before the general public,” said Grahame Maher, chief executive officer of Vodafone Qatar. Maher said by May 1, the first shareholders will be able to use their numbers for international roaming and Vodafone’s other services. He said each individual shareholder can reserve three numbers and for a company shareholder that wants to have a certain number of numbers, a Vodafone staff member will visit the company to discuss it. The subscription for Offer Shares in Vodafone Qatar’s IPO opened on April 12 and will close at 1pm on April 26. Individual Investors and Institutional Investors can obtain a prospectus and subscribe for offered shares in the Vodafone Group by visiting any of the 12 receiving banks which include the Qatar National Bank (QNB), HSBC Bank Middle East, Al Ahli Bank, Arab Bank, Commercial Bank of Qatar, Doha Bank, International Bank of Qatar, Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar International Islamic Bank, Masraf Al Rayyan, Mashreq Bank and Al Khaliji Commercial Bank. Portz said once the subscription period is closed around May 1, the first shareholders will receive a PIN number that will allow them to go online on Vodafone’s website and choose their numbers. The entire range of Vodafone numbers, including the Star Numbers, will be available. All of Vodafone’s numbers will start with “7”. Randomly generated numbers will be free of charge. The first shareholders who want to select their own number will be charged a reservation fee starting from QR 500. http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=April2009&file=Local_News200904145514.xml

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