Almarai sees $36m writedown

Saudi Arabia's Almarai, a founding shareholder in Zain Saudi, will likely take a $36 million impairment on its stake in the telecoms carrier at the end of 2011 if the shares remain stuck near current levels, the company's chief financial officer said on Wednesday.

Dairy firm Almarai was one of nine founding shareholders in Zain Saudi and owns a 2.5 per cent stake initially valued at 350 million riyals ($93m). The operator launched services in 2008, competing against rivals Saudi Telecom Co and Etihad Etisalat (Mobily).

"If the share price of Zain Saudi will stay at the level it's at currently or lower by year-end, we will then propose an impairment of the assets," Paul-Louis Gay, Almarai chief financial officer.

Based on Zain Saudi's share price on September 30, Gay said the impairment would likely be 136m riyals ($36.3m), but since then the shares have fallen further, from 6.25 to 5.7 riyals, a seven-month low.

With the firm's proposed capital restructuring, analysts see little scope for a rebound. The restructuring was announced in August 2010 but was delayed following ultimately unsuccessful bids for stakes in Zain Saudi and its Kuwaiti parent Zain.

Zain Saudi wants to cut its capital by 55 per cent to 6.27 billion riyals and then issue 4.4bn riyals of new shares.

The operator has yet to make a quarterly profit and has about 9.2bn riyals in accumulated losses, or 66 per cent of its paid-up capital. Bourse rules say listed firms must cut their capital if losses exceed 75 per cent to cancel some of these losses.

Almarai has also lent 109.6m riyals to Zain Saudi, according to the latter's first-quarter results.

Almarai's shares were down 0.3 per cent at 0942 GMT.