The decision that was announced this week by Zain, the Kuwait telecoms company, to sell its prized African assets to Bharti Airtel, is a volte-face by the company which not long ago yearned to be a global player.
The proposed sale ends Zain’s dream, outlined in 2007, to have 150m subscribers, annual earnings of $6bn and be among the 10 largest telecoms companies in the world by market capitalisation by 2011. It has also fired speculation about the motives of one of its main shareholders, the Kuwaiti Kharafi family.
The Kharafis have been attempting to engineer a sale for some time, to the consternation of the company’s management, people familiar with the matter say. Saad Al Barrak, Zain’s long-standing chief executive, eventually resigned, shortly before the Bharti Airtel sale was announced.
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