Processing .....please wait.. 
The article has been forwarded.... 
Kuwait's Securities Group joins race for Zain
By siliconindia
New Delhi: The race to buy Kuwaiti telecom company Zain, took yet another twist on Sunday with a local investment firm in Kuwait stating that it planned to buy a 25 percent in the communications major. In a newspaper advertisement on Sunday, the Kuwait-based firm known as Securities Group said that it plans to make a multi-billion dollar bid to buy out the 25 percent stake in Zain that is currently held by Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), the Emirate's sovereign wealth fund, reports Economic Times.
KIA is the biggest shareholder in Zain. "The Securities Group announces that it is making the necessary studies to make an offer to purchase part or all of the KIA stake in Zain telecom whenever the KIA decides to sell," the advertisement in the local newspaper said.
This comes even as consortium led by India's Vavasi Group, with the al-Bukhary Group of Malaysian Billionaire Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary as partner, is in negotiations to buy a 46 percent stake in Zain for about $13.7 billion (
65,000 crore). State owned Indian telecom operators, BSNL and MTNL are also in talks to join the consortium formed by this obscure Indian firm and the Malaysian entity provided they get a controlling say in the grouping and the grouping gets a controlling say in Zain .
The Securities Group has said that it could offer about of two Dinars (6.99 dollars) per share in Zain. This is a premium over the operator's current trading price, which is about 1.42 dinars (five dollars) as of Sunday. This implies, if the Securities Group is successful in buying out KIA's stake in Zain, the deal will be worth about $7.34 billion. Meanwhile, local news reports in Kuwait said that KIA had received other offers to buy out its stake in Zain. These reports also added that that the Emirates' sovereign wealth fund was examining these offers.
Interestingly, the Securities Group offer per share is identical to that made by the Vavasi-led consortium. Last month, the Indian-Malaysian consortium had said that they would buy a 20 percent stake in Zain from the country's Khorafi Group and an additional 26 percent from other shareholders in Kuwait's largest phone company, taking their total holding to about 46 percent. This consortium too had said that it would pay two dinars a share for Zain, valuing the deal at about $13.7 billion, making it the biggest telcom deal in West Asia this year.
Executives familiar with the talks between the Indian PSUs and Vavasi had earlier said that there was political pressure on the operators to join the consortium. The same executives also feared that the consortium would use up the cash reserves of BSNL and MTNL to fund the transaction. While BSNL has about $7 billion ( 34,000 crore) in cash reserves, MTNL's reserves are to the tune of $1.5 billion ( 7,300 crore).
65,000 crore). State owned Indian telecom operators, BSNL and MTNL are also in talks to join the consortium formed by this obscure Indian firm and the Malaysian entity provided they get a controlling say in the grouping and the grouping gets a controlling say in Zain .
The Securities Group has said that it could offer about of two Dinars (6.99 dollars) per share in Zain. This is a premium over the operator's current trading price, which is about 1.42 dinars (five dollars) as of Sunday. This implies, if the Securities Group is successful in buying out KIA's stake in Zain, the deal will be worth about $7.34 billion. Meanwhile, local news reports in Kuwait said that KIA had received other offers to buy out its stake in Zain. These reports also added that that the Emirates' sovereign wealth fund was examining these offers.
Interestingly, the Securities Group offer per share is identical to that made by the Vavasi-led consortium. Last month, the Indian-Malaysian consortium had said that they would buy a 20 percent stake in Zain from the country's Khorafi Group and an additional 26 percent from other shareholders in Kuwait's largest phone company, taking their total holding to about 46 percent. This consortium too had said that it would pay two dinars a share for Zain, valuing the deal at about $13.7 billion, making it the biggest telcom deal in West Asia this year.
Executives familiar with the talks between the Indian PSUs and Vavasi had earlier said that there was political pressure on the operators to join the consortium. The same executives also feared that the consortium would use up the cash reserves of BSNL and MTNL to fund the transaction. While BSNL has about $7 billion ( 34,000 crore) in cash reserves, MTNL's reserves are to the tune of $1.5 billion ( 7,300 crore).