The Zain Group, a Kuwaiti company offering mobile telephone services in 22 countries in Africa and the Middle East, has raised US$4.49 billion in capital.
The Zain Group, a Kuwaiti company offering mobile telephone services in 22 countries in Africa and the Middle East, has raised $4.49 billion in capital.
Ninety-nine percent of all Zain shareholders took advantage of a rights issue from Aug. 17 to Sept. 18, resulting in the capital. Shareholders were eligible to subscribe to a number of capital increase shares equal to 75% of the total number of shares they held at the time at a price of $3.20 per share.
The number of subscribed shares exceeded 1.4 billion, bringing the number of Zain shares to 4.28 billion, with total shareholders’ equity reaching $6.42 billion.
A statement issued by the company said the amount raised is unprecedented in Kuwait’s history.
The $4.49 billion exceeded all expectations, given the gloomy trends that have recently dominated local and international markets, resulting in sharp declines in the prices of oil and significant collapses in the financial markets worldwide.
“The successful completion of the largest capital increase in the history of Kuwait is a unanimous vote of confidence by our shareholders in Zain’s management team, the performance to date and in our profitable expansion strategy aiming to be a top-10 global mobile operator by 2011,” said Zain CEO Saad Al Barrak.
“The proceeds of this capital increase will be used to finance future strategic expansion plans and meet financial commitments,” he said.
Zain has more than 50 million customers.
Al Barrak said all the group’s financial indicators are now geared towards exponential growth on the back of Zain’s huge investments in expansion projects in many of the Middle Eastern and African markets.
“We expect these investments to bring about substantial increases in the group’s future revenues and net profits,” Al Barrak said.
Every Zain shareholder as of March 10 was eligible for the rights issue.
