Batelco remains interested in Zain Saudi Arabia, and will place a bid at the “right price”, CEO Peter Kaliaropoulos has told Reuters.
One of the key conditions for Etisalat to succeed in its attempted US$12bn acquisition of a 46% stake in Zain is for the…
Batelco remains interested in Zain Saudi Arabia, and will place a bid at the “right price”, CEO Peter Kaliaropoulos has told Reuters.
One of the key conditions for Etisalat to succeed in its attempted US$12bn acquisition of a 46% stake in Zain is for the Kuwait-based operator to sell off its 25% stake in Zain Saudi Arabia. This would enable a combined entity to comply with Saudi FDI caps, since Etisalat too owns a business – Mobily – in the Kingdom.
TelecomFinance understands that senior executives at both Zain and Etisalat held important meetings at the beginning of this week, and Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai reported that Etisalat’s due diligence on Zain is almost complete.
Etisalat shifted its own deadline for finishing due diligence from January 15 to January 29, due to “unforeseen delays” caused by Zain.
While the powerful al Kharafi family, which controls a 26% stake in Zain, is supporting the deal, smaller shareholders – most notably Al-Fawares, which controls a 4.5% stake – have taken their very vocal opposition to the court and into the arms of surprise suitor Cukurova Holding, which has made a US$7.89bn offer to buy 29.9% percent of Zain.
Zain’s stake in its Saudi Arabian business has been valued at R2.75bn (US$733bn), but the number three player is struggling to compete with rivals STC and Mobily, and is also saddled with debt.
Batelco, QTel and MTN have all stated an interest in buying Zain Saudi Arabia, and TelecomFinance reported back in November that Zain CEO Saad al-Barrak was mulling a bid of his own.
Speaking at the TelecomFinance 2011 Conference in London earlier this week, Batelco M&A head Ian Kelly said: “Batelco is debt free but willing to raise debt to make acquisitions. But it will not be a case of setting up a war chest in advance – it will be in conjunction with a good opportunity”.
