Kuwait Investment Authority has hired advisors to evaluate the value of its share in Mobile Telecommunications company Zain Group, ahead of a possible sale of its 24.6 per cent stake, a newspaper report has said.
Without revealing the source of the information, Kuwait- based Al Qabas daily said if KIA, Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund, opts for the stake sale this will be in the form of a public auction.
The current market value of KIA's stake in Zain is estimated at about $4.5 billion, the report said, adding that KIA's share in Zain's 2009 dividend amounts to 178.8 million Kuwaiti dinars ($613.4 million).
On May 27, Zain had announced that it is proceeding towards completion of the sale of Zain Africa, its African business, excluding its operations in Morocco and Sudan, to Bharti for an enterprise value of $10.7 billion.
According to the statement, Bharti has begun drawing down to fund the completion proceeds. On completion, Zain will repay its $4 billion Revolving Credit Facility, and will use the remaining proceeds to attend to other corporate matters.
"As stated in our announcement of March 30, 2010, $700 million of the total cash proceeds is due one year from completion," the company had said.
