Kuwait's Zain plans more Africa acquisitions

Kuwaiti mobile phone company Zain is finalising several acquisition deals in Africa, its chief executive for the continent said on Thursday.

"We are currently actively looking at several acquisitions in the African market block. Some are very close to coming to fruition," Zain's Chris Gabriel told Reuters in an interview, but declined to give details.

Zain operates in 20 countries: in 14 African nations under the name Celtel and in six African and Middle East states as Zain. It has invested more than $10-billion in Africa since 2005, Gabriel said.

Celtel is the only alternative operator in Kenya to market leader Safaricom. But two other players, Orange and Econet Wireless, are set to roll out networks this year.

Internationally, Zain Group says it is looking to list on a European stock exchange next year. The company does not plan other flotations in Africa following the listing of Celtel Zambia in June.

"In terms of specific African countries where there is a requirement under the licence regimes, we will look to list a certain portion of the company. But that is in relation to the specific licence and usually not more than 20 percent of the organisation in the region," he said.

He said two-thirds of the firm's 50-million customers across Africa and the Middle East were in Africa. The firm plans to achieve 110-million subscribers by 2011.

He said the firm's "One Network" product that scraps roaming charges for customers in countries that have Zain networks, is expected to be the key engine for growth on the continent.

The service is currently available in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Sudan.

"We aim to roll One Network out over all of our operations progressively ... we may expand the One Network concept beyond Zain entities and that is something we are looking at as we speak," he said without elaborating.