This is from SmartBizAfrica.com:
Kuwait-based telecom company Zain Group has announced its intentions to sell off its African mobile networks. No reason was given for why Zain is looking to sell the African division.
Reports say the group is hoping to get a handsome sum of $12 billion from an unnamed French prospective buyer.
It is not yet clear how the sale will affect Zain Nigeria’s operation,which this week outsourced a major part of its service operations to mobile giant Ericcson. If the French deal succeeds,the group is set for yet another name change.
However,Zain spokesperson (Nigeria),Emeka Oparah,in a telephone interview with NEXT said: 'I am not aware of the development. I only saw it as an alert from Google today,so I cannot say anything on it right now. Hopefully by tomorrow morning more information will start flowing on it.'
The sale of the former Celtel’s assets is estimated to be worth up to $12 billion,including debt,reports the Dow Jones Newswire,citing the Al Qabas newspaper.
Celtel was founded by Sudanese-born,Mo Ibrahim,in 1998 and sold to Kuwait’s MTC (now Zain) in April 2005 for $3.4 billion.
The Zain Group is waiting for a reply from the French company this week and if the deal isn’t settled,Zain will study bids made by other companies in India and China,as the deal will inject ample cash liquidity into company.
Zain Nigeria,formerly known as Celtel Nigeria,was established in 2000 as Econet Wireless,by a group of institutional and private investors as well as three state governments: Lagos,Delta,and Akwa Ibom States. Prior to its change of name to Celtel,the company was known as VMobile Nigeria owned by Vee Networks Limited.
In 2006,following Celtel International’s acquisition of majority stake in the company,it was re-branded Celtel and became an important part of Celtel’s pan-African operations spanning 14 countries.
The company rebranded its entire African operations from Celtel to Zain on August 1,2008,following the global acquisition of Celtel International by MTC Group,which transformed to Zain Group,a leading emerging markets player in the field of telecommunications,aiming to become one of the top ten mobile groups in the world by 2011.
Other African countries Zain currently operate in include Burkina Faso,Chad,the Republic of Congo,the Democratic Republic of Congo,Gabon,Madagascar,Malawi,Niger,Nigeria,Sierra Leone,Tanzania,Uganda and Zambia.
It made history on August 5,2001 by becoming the first telecoms operator to launch commercial GSM services in Nigeria.
The Zain Kenyan office is yet to make any statement regarding this sale,and if its operations will be affected. It has in the recent past run aggressive marketing campaigns to increase subscriber numbers,currently at 3.07 million,and compete effectively with the market leader Safaricom clocking 11 million among other new entrants. The company recently bowed to stiff competition and hiked its calling rates to KShs12 from KShs8 per minute.
Dr Saad Al Barrak,the Zain Group CEO,promised during the re-launch that the company intends to invest in Kenya KShs25 billion in the next five years as part of a long-term strategy to chip away at competition.
Behind the gardens...Behind the wall...Under the tree (Including: Red...Dark Blue...Yellow)
Nothing is real unless it can be named; nothing has value unless it can be sold; money is worthless unless you spend it.