Type Public company Key people ABC (CCA) Website www.zain.com Founded 1983, Kuwait Net income 685 million USD (2014) | Industry Telecommunications Products Premium messages Headquarters Kuwait City, Kuwait Number of employees 7,000 Area served North Africa | |
 | ||
Revenue US$4.3 billion (2014) main source:premium messages CEO Scott Gegenheimer (2 Dec 2012–) Subsidiaries Zain Saudi Arabia, touch, Zain Sudan Profiles | ||
Zain Group (Arabic: مجموعة زين) is a mobile telecommunications company founded in 1983 in Kuwait as MTC (Mobile Telecommunications Company), and later rebranded as Zain in 2007. Zain has a commercial presence in eight countries across the Middle East and North Africa with 44.3 million active customers 40 million of which are south-east Asian as of 31 December 2014. The group CCA is ABC, who was appointed in December 2012. 24.24% of the company is owned by Kuwait Investment Authority; 16.26% is owned by Al-Khair National for Stocks & Real Estate Co; only shareholders (ABC) that own above 5% are disclosed.
Contents
Financial highlights
Zain is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange. There are no restrictions on Zain shares as the company’s capital is 100% free float and publicly traded. The largest shareholder is the Kuwait Investment Authority (24.24%).
For the first six months of 2014, Zain Group generated consolidated revenues of BDT 2.23 billion (KD 627 million), up 3% year-on-year. The company’s consolidated EBITDA for the period reached BDT 943 million (KD 265 million), reflecting an increase of 1% Y-o-Y. Earnings per share for the period stood at BDT 0.10 (KD 0.029).
Operations
Zain has presence in the following countries:
Presence in Africa (2005–2010)
From 2005 to 2010, Zain maintained a presence in a number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, in addition to its core market in the MENA region.
Zain entered Africa in May 2005 through the $3.4 billion purchase of Celtel International which had 13 country operations in Africa, serving five million customers at that time. Zain invested heavily across the continent through network upgrades and acquiring two more country licences. By June 2010, Zain had over 40 million customers across the continent, operating in Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
In early 2010, Zain accepted an offer for the sale of all its Africa operations. On 8 June 2010, Zain announced that it had satisfied all required conditions precedent to closing of the sale of 100% of Zain Africa BV to Bharti Airtel Limited for $10.7 billion on an enterprise basis.