Kuwaiti telco Zain Group has rejected all three bidders for Saudi unit Zain KSA, the company confirmed.
The bidders for Zain’s 25% stake were Saudi investment groups Kingdom Holding, advised by RBS, Riyadh Holding and Bahraini incumbent Batelco, advised…
Kuwaiti telco Zain Group has rejected all three bidders for Saudi unit Zain KSA, the company confirmed.
The bidders for Zain’s 25% stake were Saudi investment groups Kingdom Holding, advised by RBS, Riyadh Holding and Bahraini incumbent Batelco, advised by Citi.
In a statement to the Saudi stock exchange, Kingdom – which had been seen as the frontrunner, due to its Saudi ownership, royal connections and potential links to Zain KSA CEO Saad al Barrak, “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.”
The group said it would maintain its original offer, since it was determined to provide shareholder value. Kingdom had extended the deadline for its initial offer until February 19.
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.
