Atheeb Telecom given permission to undertake rights issue

Saudi Arabia’s Etihad Atheeb Telecom (Go) has been granted permission by the kingdom’s stock exchange regulator to raise US$310 million in a new share issue. The rights issue will be limited to existing shareholders.

Once completed, the company’s shares should resume trading on the stock exchange, which were suspended when its losses exceeded 95 per cent of its valuation.

The company holds a landline operator licence under the Go Telecom brand as well as a WiMAX licence, and is 15 per cent owned by Bahrain’s Batelco.

It had been expected that the company would be merged with Zain if the Batelco-led takeover of Zain Saudi Arabia had succeeded. The collapse of those talks left Atheeb on its own.

The company has not said when the share issue will take place.