Zain Announces Details of $4.5 Billion Fund Raising Effort

Kuwait based operator, Zain has published the details of its capital increase which is aiming to raise around US$4.5 billion for the company's expansion plans. The capital increase was approved at the CompanyÃ's extraordinary general assembly meeting on March 10, 2008 which ratified ZainÃ's Board of Directors recommendation to increase the companyÃ's ‘paid in capitalÃ' by 75%.

Zain has set a target of being a top-ten global mobile operator by the year 2011.

The company recently released its half-year 2008 results indicating revenues of US$3.488 billion, an increase of 26% compared to H1-2007. The companyÃ's consolidated EBITDA increased by 20% for the same period to reach US$ 1.305 billion. Zain consolidated net profits reached US$ 552 million, an increase of 7% on H1-2007 profits. The company was serving 50.74 managed active customers on two continents as at 30 June 2008.

In a recent interview, Zain CEO Saad al-Barrak has again restated his desire for the company to enter the South African market - and also not ruled out the possibility that the company could itself become an acquisition target. He also confirmed that the company is in talks with unnamed Indian companies regarding an opportunity to enter that fast growing market.

Posted to the site on 11th August 2008