Zain Saudi plans February IPO

 

 

The state-owned Public Pension Agency will take a tenth of the 700 million shares offered by Zain Saudi Arabia, which will start operating the kingdom's third mobile phone network this year, the Capital Market Authority (CMA) said in a statement.

 

The remainder, or 45 per cent of Zain Saudi Arabia's capital, will be sold to Saudi nationals. The shares will be sold at 10 riyals each in an IPO running from February 9 to 18.

 

The Saudi government said last year that the Public Pension Agency and the General Organisation for Social Insurance (GOSI) will together share the 10 per cent stake in Zain Saudi Arabia. CMA did not explain why GOSI had dropped out.

 

Kuwait-based Mobile Telecommunications Co (Zain), the third largest Arab telecom operator by market value, owns 25 per cent of the new company that agreed to pay $6.11 billion (Dh22.3 billion) last year Saudi-Arabia's third mobile phone licence.

 

Zain Saudi will compete with state-controlled Saudi Telecom Co and Etihad Etisalat, an affiliate of Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Eitsalat).

 

The company plans to launch operations in 2008.  Zain Saudi Arabia said on Monday it had awarded Nokia Siemens Networks an $935 million (Dh3.4 billion) order to build second- and third-generation mobile networks which it said could serve 8 million users. (Reuters)