The chief executive of Kuwait-based Mobile Telecommunications Co. – better known as ‘Zain’ – has revealed that the Middle Eastern and sub-Saharan mobile operator is planning to raise up to US$5 billion in new share offers. CEO Saad al-Barrak told Reuters in an interview today that the company will debut on the Bahrain stock exchange in June and is also considering floating on a European stock exchange – possibly London – in the first or second quarter of 2009. The company is currently only listed in Kuwait. Al-Barrak said the operator was considering listing either part of the whole company or its separate international operations unit, which is headquartered in Bahrain.

The capital raised from the international IPOs is likely to be used to help fund Zain’s expansion in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. According to company data, the operator is active across 22 territories and had 45.7 million mobile customers at the end of first-quarter 2008. The company bought Orascom Telecom’s Iraqi mobile operations late last year.