Regional telecom player, Zain is readying another record-breaking IPO. The Kuwaiti company expects to reveal details of its Bahrain listing by June, part of its agreement to run the country’s second telecom licence, as well as plans to list on an international stock exchange.

Zain is already the largest capitalised company on the Kuwait Stock Market; its Saudi listing earlier this year was oversubscribed 269 per cent. There are no details yet on the volume of the Bahrain offer, but it is expected the listing will be the country’s biggest.

The Zain listing continues a bull run for telecom providers. Shares in the UAE’s second operator were oversubscribed 167 times in 2006 ($658.8 million was hoped for, $109 billion was bid); in February this year Saudi Telecom said it would borrow $2.6bn to take a 35 per cent stake in Oger Telecom.

Shares in Zain Saudi Arabia are due to start trading this week, according to the Bahrain Tribune. Early this month, Zain shareholders gave their nod to a 125 per cent increase in the group’s capital to fund future global expansion. Zain will raise about KD1.2 billion by selling 1.42 billion shares to its current shareholders at 0.85 dinars per share. The group will also allocate some 950 million shares or 50 per cent of the capital as a grant to shareholders. The process will increase Zain’s capital from KD189.5 million dinars to KD428 million. The sale of shares will take place in May

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Zain, the largest capitalised company on the Kuwait Stock Market, made a number of multi-billion dollar acquisitions in Africa and the Middle East in the past few years and was exploring several investment opportunities in Syria, Turkey and Yemen besides Africa where the company operates in 15 countries.

It acquired Dutch firm CelTel, which operates in 13 African nations, in a $3.4 billion deal and Sudan’s Mobitel for $1.332 billion. It also acquired the license of Iraqna from Egypt’s Orascom for $1.2 billion, which clears the ground for Zain to offer mobile services in Iraq for a 15-year period. The company also won the third mobile license in Saudi Arabia for $6.1 billion dollars last year, where it is poised to launch operations shortly.