Zain is reported to be eyeing an entry into three more African countries within a year, funded by its previously reported plans to raise US$5 billion in new share offers. Currently operating in 22 countries, the operator claims to be the world’s fourth-largest operator in terms of geographic spread, but in an interview with the South Africa-based Business Day newspaper, Zain’s Africa CEO, Chris Gabriel, said his ambition is to turn Zain into one of the world’s 10 largest operators by revenue and profit by 2011. “We are looking at expanding in Africa and in the next 6 to 12 months we will definitely take on three African operations,” said Gabriel. The report cites Gabriel as stating that Zain would like to operate in South Africa and was keeping an eye on the market.

Zain’s parent company is Kuwait-listed Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC), a network operator in the Middle East that entered Africa through the US$3.4 billion acquisition of Celtel in 2005. Celtel’s networks now trade under the name of Zain. Yesterday, Celtel Zambia, Zambia’s largest mobile operator, listed on the Lusaka bourse (LuSE) in the country’s biggest ever IPO, valuing the company at US$1.17 billion. Celtel is the second African mobile operator to list this week, following Kenya’s Safaricom’s debut in Nairobi on Monday. The Safaricom sale was oversubscribed by more than 500 percent and the stock rose as high as 8 Kenyan shillings (US$0.13), from an initial sale price of 5 shillings in trading on the Nairobi Stock Exchange.