Saudi investment group Kingdom Holding is still in talks with Kuwait-based telco Zain about the sale of its 25% stake in local unit Zain KSA, reports Reuters.
Prince Alwaleed, the royal entrepreneur who heads up the firm, was cited telling a conference…
Saudi investment group Kingdom Holding is still in talks with Kuwait-based telco Zain about the sale of its 25% stake in local unit Zain KSA, reports Reuters.
Prince Alwaleed, the royal entrepreneur who heads up the firm, was cited telling a conference in Riyadh that Kingdom is still talking to Zain Group.
This is despite being among the three bidders rejected last month.
Kingdom, which is advised by RBS, had been seen as a frontrunner, due to its Saudi ownership, royal connections and potential links to Zain KSA CEO Saad al Barrak.[new sentence/line]
“The board of Zain Kuwait did not provide Kingdom Holding with an answer with regard to the presented offer so the offer period expired without reaching any agreement,” Kingdom stated at the time, adding that it would maintain its original offer.
The other bidders were Riyadh Holding and Bahraini incumbent Batelco, advised by Citi.
Batelco, for its part, stated: “We believe the Batelco Consortium presented a very fair and reasonable offer to Zain Group … and also involved a significant amount of new cash to be injected into Zain KSA as working capital to accelerate its growth in a highly competitive market.” According to Bloomberg, that offer came in below book value.
The sale is a key condition for Etisalat’s acquisition of 46% of Zain, a transaction worth US$11.7bn. Etisalat, for its part, stated that it regretted Zain’s decision not to accept any of the three offers.
Zain KSA has a reported US$3.9bn in debt, having paid US$6.1bn for the country’s third mobile licence in 2007. The 25% stake has been valued at some US$733-750m.
Credit Agricole and/or UBS has been acting as adviser to Zain on its acquisition by Etisalat and its sale of the stake in Zain KSA.
