Mobile carrier Zain Saudi Arabia has appointed Hassan Kabbani as its new CEO, replacing Fraser Curley.
Kabbani has 23 years of executive telecommunications experience in the Middle East and Africa. He had been an adviser to the chairman of Oger Telecom…
Mobile carrier Zain Saudi Arabia has appointed Hassan Kabbani as its new CEO, replacing Fraser Curley.
Kabbani has 23 years of executive telecommunications experience in the Middle East and Africa. He had been an adviser to the chairman of Oger Telecom since October 2011 and was also a non-executive board member of the telco, which owns Turk Telekom and Cell C.
Prior to his role at Oger, Kabbani was CEO of Egyptian mobile operator Mobinil.
According to Zain, Curley decided to step down from his position after 18 months for personal reasons. Curley is credited for leading Zain KSA “through a comprehensive turnaround of its operations and its financing structure”, Zain KSA said.
In late July the operator, controlled by Kuwait’s Zain Group, extended the maturity of its SR8.63bn (US$2.3bn) murabaha facility by five years in a further effort to address its debt problems.
The loan extension represented the last stage of its balance sheet reorganisation, following a US$325m export credit agency facility signed in June 2012, a capital restructuring and rights issue in July 2012 and a US$600m junior debt facility in June 2013.
