Zain Group has raised KWD1.2 billion (US$4.49 billion) in Kuwait’s largest capital raising exercise, with 99 per cent of all shareholders subscribing.

The number of subscribed shares exceeded 1.4 billion, bringing the total number of Zain shares to 4.28 billion with total shareholders’ equity reaching US$6.42 billion.

Zain has a subscriber base of 50 million people across 22 countries and is looking for further expansion.

Zain’s CEO Saad Al Barrak said the proceeds of the capital increase would be used to finance future strategic expansion plans and meet financial commitments.

“All the group’s financial indicators are now geared up to witness exponential growth on the back of Zain’s huge investments in expansion projects in many of the Middle East and African markets in which we operate. We expect these investments to bring about substantial increases in the group’s future revenues and net profits,” commented Al Barrak.

Zain has grown significantly in the past five years to now offer mobile telecoms services in 22 countries across the Middle East and Africa, with a subscriber base of 50 million.

Every Zain shareholder of record on March 10, 2008, the date the company held its ordinary and extraordinary general assembly meeting was eligible to subscribe to a number of capital increase shares equal to 75 per cent of the total number of shares they held on this date.

The capital increase subscription price was 850 fils per share.

Parties interested in bidding for Bahrain’s third mobile licence have until November 13 to make their offers, the kingdom’s telecoms regulator announced this week.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) stated the auction would take the form of a multi-stage qualification process, with a final financial round for qualified bidders.

Alan Horne wants an experienced international player as the kingdom’s third mobile operator

The TRA’s director general Alan Horne said he expects the winning bidder to be an experienced international player capable of offering innovative and affordable mobile services, to strengthen competition in Bahrain, and deliver tangible socio-economic benefits. The current mobile providers in the country are Batelco and Zain.

The tender documents for the third licence are available on the TRA’s website (www.tra.org.bh) and can be downloaded for free by prospective bidders after completing a brief electronic form.

To be eligible to bid, interested parties are required to register and pay a non-refundable fee of BD2500 (US$6631) by 3pm on October 13.

Registration will allow parties to seek clarification to information provided in the documents, with the closing date for the submission of questions at 3pm on October 16.

The final deadline for receiving bids is no later than 3pm on November 13, after which the TRA will review the initial pre-qualification information submitted by bidders.

On November 18, the TRA will announce the names of the bidders that have passed the pre-qualification review, as well as the date for opening the financial offers for those bidders.

Nawras is expected to be awarded Oman’s second fixed-line licence following confirmation earlier this week that a consortium including the UK’s Vodafone Group had won Qatar’s second fixed-line telephone licence.

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Having been forced to delay the announcement of its earnings for the second quarter for a number of weeks due to the effort to consolidate the results of recently acquired Indosat into its results, Qatar Telecom (Qtel) this week reported a 102 per cent growth in revenues in the first half of the year to end-June. Consolidated group revenue amounted to QAR8.11 billion (US$2.2 billion), while EBITDA increased 92 per cent year-on-year in the first half to QAR4.04 billion. This implies an EBITDA margin of 49.8 per cent for the period.

Qtel has a stated ambition to emerge as a top 20 telecoms operator by the year 2020

Qtel’s net profit attributable to shareholders stood at QAR1.18 billion for the first half, an increase of 33 per cent year-on-year.

The telco reported that Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria, Oman and Indonesia (post acquisition) now represent its six largest markets by revenue, contributing 32 per cent, 19 per cent, 15 per cent, 10 per cent, eight per cent, and seven per cent of group revenue respectively.

The number of subscribers on Qtel’s networks increased drastically through acquisition, reaching 51.3 million at the end of June, up from just 9.6 million a year earlier.

With respect to quarterly performance, Qtel reported consolidated revenue amounting to QAR4.56 billion for Q208, up 78 per cent year-on-year, while its EBITDA margin slipped marginally from 50 per cent in Q207 to 49 per cent in Q208.

Net profit attributable to shareholders amounted to QAR654.5 million in Q208, up 59 percent from the same period in the previous year.

In Qatar, the telco reported revenue growth of 21 per cent for the half to end-June of QAR2.61 billion, and counted over 1.4 million mobile subscribers.

In Oman, Qtel’s Nawras operation reported revenues amounting to QAR609 million for the first half of 2008, up 63 per cent year-on-year. Nawras’ market share has grown from strength-to-strength to reach 44.4 per cent share at the end of June.

Qtel reported that Asiacell in Iraq counted 4.8 million subscribers at the end of June.

Saudi-founded mobile distributor, i2, has expanded its retail network into Pakistan where mobile phone subscribers increased by 22.36 million during the fiscal year 2007-08.

CEO of i2, Al Sunaid, said entering into Pakistan with a huge population of 165 million people offers great potential for his retail company

The retailer has an aggressive plan to cover most of the main cities in Pakistan by extending its customer touch points and mobile points of sale, while offering value added services such as i2 magazine, i2 club and i2 café.

Currently present in 22 countries in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, the company sells a wide range of mobile phones, PDAs, wireless technology, software and mobile accessories.

The company’s CEO Abdul Hameed Al Sunaid stated the country was a key market and represented an integral part of i2’s geographical expansion.

“Pakistan is a huge market and we view it as having enormous potential. Pakistan is an ideal place for i2 particularly keeping in mind our strategic growth objectives and interest in untapped markets in South Asia,“ Al Sunaid commented.

With an estimated population of 165 million, Pakistan’s mobile penetration stands at approximately 53 per cent.