Chairman of UAE telecom giant Etisalat Mohammed Omran said on Thursday that a multi-billion-dollar deal to buy a stake in Kuwait's Zain was opposed by some shareholders but was still at an early stage.
"We have previously made a preliminary proposal. We are still at an early stage," Omran said in a statement issued by the Abu Dhabi-based company.
"The due diligence process has yet to start. We will not conclude a transaction until the final results of the due diligence are considered by our board. This will take a number of weeks," he said.
The government and its institutions own approximately 27 percent of Zain, and 10 percent are treasury stocks that are neutral.
Omran said the acquisition would be consistent with Etisalat strategy to expand beyond mature core markets into growth markets.
If concluded, the deal will make Etisalat, currently the second biggest regional mobile operator, the largest telecom firm in the region ahead of Saudi STC.
Omran said Etisalat has received several attractive proposals from banks to finance the transaction.
In March, Zain sold its operations in 15 African nations to India's Bharti Airtel for 10.7 billion dollars, netting a profit of more than three billion dollars from the deal.
Besides Kuwait, Zain operates in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.
© 2010 AFP
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