The Kuwait-based Zain Group has hired financial advisers for a potential tower sale or sharing deal.
Confirming the advisers’ appointment in an emailed statement, a Zain spokesperson said they will help the company decide upon its best business model,…
The Kuwait-based Zain Group has hired financial advisers for a potential tower sale or sharing deal.
Confirming the advisers’ appointment in an emailed statement, a Zain spokesperson said they will help the company decide upon its best business model, which could include a tower sale-and-leaseback deal across some operations or sharing, Reuters reported.
Saying the process is in the early stages, Zain reportedly added that there has been no final decision on whether to sell or form a new tower company in any of its operations. It declined to comment on where a tower deal would be most likely to take place.
Zain was not immediately available for comment.
An earlier Bloomberg report cited people with knowledge of the matter as saying Zain was working with Citigroup on the potential sale of about 8,000 towers in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, which could command a price of up to US$2bn.
Telcos with local operations and private equity firms are likely to express interest, the sources were quoted as saying.
Zain has mobile and data services operations in eight Middle Eastern and North African countries which, in addition to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, include Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Sudan, South Sudan and Lebanon.
Over the past year, the African tower market has been heating up with leading operators including Airtel, MTN and Etisalat offloading their sites to local towers in an attempt to reduce their capex and optimise their balance sheet.
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