Bahrain boasts over 1.5 million mobile users; mobile penetration rate to cross over 140 percent by end of 2010

Dubai - June 22nd, 2010: SanDisk® Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), the inventor and world’s largest supplier of flash storage cards today announced signing a distribution agreement with International Agencies Co Ltd. (Intercol) in the Kingdom of Bahrain. With this partnership, SanDisk Middle East and Africa strengthens its regional presence through Intercol’s well-established network.

With a population of just over 1.1 million people, forecasts for 2010 suggest that Bahrain will boast of just over 1.5 million mobile users and a penetration rate over 140 percent .

Riding on this growth, Abdulrahman Ali Alwazzan, Director, Intercol said: “The global flash memory market has been predicted to grow at 12 percent annually and touch BHD 36.3 billion (US$ 99 billion) by 2015. The partnership will help us cash in on the burgeoning market while at the same time provide more opportunity for future collaboration and distribution of innovative solutions from SanDisk in the Bahrain market.”

Intercol has over 120 principals across all areas of information technology, telecommunications and commercial applications, which will enhance SanDisk market presence in the region.

“Our partnership with Intercol reinforces our objective to expand our product reach across the region. The entire range of SanDisk storage products will now be available to a wider market through the expertise and established distribution networks of Intercol,” said Tareq Husseini, SanDisk’s Middle East and Africa Sales Director.

SanDisk’s product portfolio includes flash memory cards for mobile phones, digital cameras and camcorders; digital audio/video players; USB flash drives for consumers and the enterprise; embedded memory for mobile devices; and solid state drives for computers.

Zurich Middle East has bolstered its operations in the region with appointments of seven executives in its global corporate and general insurance divisions.

David Breton is new Head of Strategic Marketing and Business Development. He will lead Zurich’s entrance into the personal insurance market in the region.

Michael Mansour is new Regional Manager, Bank Distribution and Affinity. Michael will be responsible for expanding Zurich’s customer reach in the region by opening more distribution channels with key strategic banking partners.

Glenn Doan will manage its Risk Engineering team in the Middle East.

Dubai, April 18, 2010 – Microsoft Gulf today announced its development with ITE, one of the leading regional IT distribution companies, to include Microsoft Commercial products such as Microsoft Windows, Office, and other commercial product suites available developed by Microsoft.

Previously, ITE’s Microsoft product offering included leading PC hardware such as Microsoft gaming devices, keyboards, mice, webcams, and headsets, as well as the highly demanded, Microsoft Mac Office.

The Dubai based ITE will be responsible for distributing in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain.

“ITE Distribution’s clear understanding of the retail industry has expanded our reach and assisted in our channel expansion and growth,” said Armagan Demir, Head of Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division Middle East. “ITE’s performance through the past year clearly reflects on our strategy to provide access to local outlets and retailers where premium Microsoft products can officially be available to the local consumer with the support that matches it.”

“We are pleased to further expand our partnership with Microsoft, and increase our product portfolio for network partners,” said Shams Jafery, Director – Business Development, ITE Distribution.”We will stay committed to offering our channel expertise and support to further increase Microsoft’s market share across the region.”

Microsoft had signed with ITE Distribution in April 2009 as an authorized distributor for Microsoft Hardware line-up and Mac Office in the region. ITE Distribution is a 19-year-strong, IT distribution company and their product portfolio includes Belkin, Iomega, Kingston, Labtec, Logitech, Palm, Symantec, Targus and Tucano.

New voluntary testing procedures to uphold company’s quality-standards for manufacturing and processing in light of continued geographic and business growth  

Abu Dhabi, April 13, 2010: Al Ain Dairy—the first established dairy in UAE and a leading producer of dairy products—has expanded its quality control system at local farms and processing plant through the establishment of two new technologies; a Food Lab System and Somatic Cell Counter.  The voluntary testing equipment, which is adopted to ensure that all the company’s dairy products meet international quality standards in accordance with the company’s recent ISO certification.

According to Mr. Abdullah Saif Al Darmaki, CEO of Al Ain Dairy, the continued growth of the UAE dairy industry will depend on the ability of large-scale producers to maintain international health standards as operations become more complex and geographically fragmented.  “We have forecasted considerable business expansion during 2010,” says Al Darmaki, “and we want to do everything we can to ensure that health remains the top priority throughout the production process.” 

The first of the new additions—a Food Lab System—will perform chemical testing of raw and pasteurized milk received from all Al Ain Dairy farms; the first of its kind system to be used by dairy firms in the UAE. Used to detect chemical residues such as Ammonia, Hydrogen Peroxide, Uxea and Chlorides, the system will guarantee that the milk received is of safe quality without any adulteration or chemical contamination.   

The farms’ supplied raw milk must also go through additional screening procedures at the laboratory, using a Swedish-made Somatic Cell Counter.   Somatic cells are white blood cells secreted by the cow and are one of the key indicators of whether raw milk is suitable for refinement.  While this screening is a common test at dairy farms, few companies also implement the practice at their processing facilities.

The establishment of these two health systems follows the award of ISO certification to Al Ain Farms in November 2009 for planning, implementing, and maintaining a Food Safety Management System to work across the company’s operations.  Al Darmaki says that such recognitions are an important means of encouraging local companies to elevate their production standards to worldwide calibres.  

Abu Dhabi: Reinforcing Abu Dhabi’s strong credentials as a top global destination for events and tourism, Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC), has announced it is launching a Box Office which will sell tickets for public events at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre through a state-of-the-art ticketing operation accessible to over 35,000 travel agents in Europe, North America and Australasia. 

“The development and strategy of ADNEC’s ticketing operation refines ADNEC’s value proposition in the live events sector and is aimed at supporting Abu Dhabi’s long-term events and tourism objectives,” said Simon Horgan, ADNEC Group CEO.

“ADNEC has already had the opportunity to shape the Emirate’s expanding events sector, drawing visitors to the UAE capital from around the world to its exhibitions and conferences. Going forward, the objective is to create a compelling and varied year round, programme of entertainment events that will attract audiences of all ages and cultural backgrounds, both from within and from outside the GCC region,” said Horgan elaborating ADNEC’s plans in this domain.

The ADNEC ticketing operation will use some of the most advanced ticket selling software ever developed. The system is capable of selling up to 100,000 tickets per hour and can be accessed by 35,800 travel agents and tour operators in the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.  These travel agents will be able to package tickets for events in Abu Dhabi at the point of sale, to in-bound travellers, thus providing significant benefits to Abu Dhabi’s tourism industry.

Construction work is well underway on a ticket retail outlet at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. Also, a website for online ticketing will be launched shortly.

Brian Haughan Appointed as Chief Operations Officer;

Rajeev Agarwal Assumes Role of Chief Financial Officer

Dubai, UAE – March 2, 2010    EastNets, a leading global provider of compliance and payments solutions, announced today that the company has added two key executives to its management team to support its business growth plans. EastNets welcomes Brian Haughan as Chief Operations Officer (COO) and Rajeev Agarwal as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Brian will be responsible for overall business operations and is based in EastNets’ Waterloo, Belgium offices.  He brings over 27 years of professional experience, including 21 years at SWIFT where he was Executive Head of Customer Operations for four years, and  Executive Head of Products for two years.

Rajeev holds more than 19 years of professional and managerial experience and is based in EastNets headquarters in Dubai. He holds a CPA from the U.S., a CGA from Canada, a CISA, and a CA.  Prior to his appointment with EastNets, Mr. Agarwal was CFO at OceanLake Commerce Inc. as well as Vice President of Finance for Dyadem, a QLM & process risk management software company. In addition, he was also a Senior Director of Finance at Workbrain, a workforce management software company.

“We are very pleased to have such high caliber executives as Brian and Rajeev join the company and  lead the operations and finances of our organization and help EastNets to grow revenue and improve profitability, streamline financial activities, strengthen our ability to achieve operational excellence, and develop innovative new products,” said Hazem Mulhim, CEO of EastNets. “We look forward to their contributions towards EastNets’ enhanced performance, specifically their

assistance in the delivery of value to the market and our global customer base with high quality solutions and services to improve transparency, resiliency and financial controls.”