Kuwait’s Zain has said it is exploring expansion into new emerging markets as a contingency if its plan to sell a 46 percent stake to Etisalat falls through. “As of now, because of the non-clarity of the Etisalat deal, we should just keep our focus on what we have,” Barrak al-Sabeeh, Zain’s chief operating officer, told Bloomberg. “Once things are clear, definitely we will look into good opportunities to expand.” His comments follow the news that Zain and Etisalat failed to agree a deal ahead of a 15 January deadline. According to Etisalat, the companies missed the deadline due to “unforeseeable delays in Zain providing access to all relevant information which is required for Etisalat to complete its due diligence process.” Minority shareholders in Zain had objected to the deal and a reported rival bid from Turkey’s Cukurova Holding further complicated matters. 

Zain’s al-Sabeeh identified a number of emerging markets where it hoped to buy assets if the Etisalat deal collapsed: “Most of the operations we have are saturated. So you should look into emerging markets or new licenses in some of the tempting markets, such as the Far East, Indian subcontinent, East Europe, Lebanon.” He added that Zain would rather acquire an existing operator than “a green-field licence.” Zain is currently present in seven markets and is in relatively good financial health following last year’s sale of the majority of its African mobile assets to India’s Bharti. However, many of its key markets are facing saturation. “The challenge for this year and next is huge, especially in the saturated markets of Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan,” al- Sabeeh said. “Sudan and Iraq are the two areas where we are expecting growth because penetration hasn’t reached 100 percent. And we expect to have better results in 2011 than 2010 in terms of net profit.”