| Kippreport.com

Etisalat eyes Zain stake

June 27, 2010 2:09 by Samuel Potter

UAE telecoms giant Etisalat is in talks with Kuwait’s Zain, reports Reuters.

The news service quotes a Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah, which says that the two firms are in talks, with a view to Etisalat taking a majority stake in the Kuwaiti company.

“Etisalat does not comment on market speculation and rumours,” Ahmed Bin Ali, group senior vice president for corporate communications at Etisalat told Reuters. No one from Zain was available for comment.

Zain recently completed a deal to sell its businesses in 15 African countries to the Indian company Bharti Airtel for around $10 billion, and had said it was not planning to sell any more assets.

Meanwhile, though it has yet to confirm the Zain reports, Etisalat has admitted it is looking at options India, including a 26 percent stake in Reliance Communications, the country’s second biggest operator.

Tags: Etisalat, Kuwait, shares, stake, talks, telecoms, UAE, Zain