Kaliaropoulos expresses confidence in Batelco’s ability to raise funds for Zain Saudi deal

Batelco Group CEO, Peter Kaliaropoulos has reiterated Batelco’s confidence in its ability to raise sufficient funds to pay for its share of Zain Saudi Arabia. Last week Zain Group accepted a non-binding offer for its 25 per cent stake in Zain Saudi from a consortium comprising Kingdom Holding Company and Batelco. The consortium offered US$950 million in cash, which does not include any undertakings of the US$3.8 billion of Zain Saudi debt.

Kingdom and Batelco are to form a joint venture vehicle to hold their stake in Zain Saudi, with Batelco assuming a 60 per cent participation in the JV and Kingdom the remainder.

Kaliaropoulos expressed surprise at news stories suggesting that the Batelco was finding it difficult to raise the necessary funds for its joint purchase of Zain Saudi due to the political climate in the region.

“I would like to express our complete surprise on such highly speculative, unfounded and erroneous comments. Batelco, based on proposals received from financial institutions, is confident that it has the capability to raise debt up to US$ 1.2 billion,” Kaliaropoulos said.

“In 2010 Batelco delivered US$387 million in EBITDA and US$289 million cashflow. As at February 28, 2011 the telco had effectively zero debt on its balance sheet.”

“Events in the last few weeks may increase in the short term the cost for such financing but based on feedback from GCC and international banks, there is healthy interest and a competitive spirit, from banking partners to deliver the required financing,” Kaliaropoulos added.
“Upon completion of the due diligence exercise, detail funding arrangements will accompany the binding offer from the consortium and will be communicated to all the stakeholders,” he concluded.