Securities Co clients want to join Kharafi Zain sale

JOINING SALE: Securities Group Co. says clients are interested in joining Kharafi deal to sell 46 percent stake in Kuwaiti telco Zain.

Certain Securities Group Co. portfolio clients want to join Kharafi Group in their deal to sell a 46-percent stake in telecoms firm Zain to Asian investors.

Securities Group, which itself wants to buy a stake in Zain from the country's sovereign wealth fund, made the comments in a statement obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.

The firm plans to publish the statement in Kuwaiti newspapers on Thursday.

"Some of (our) portfolio clients have expressed their interest in joining the deal to sell 46 percent of Zain... (and) agreed on the price of 2 dinars (per share)," the statement said.

Last month, Kharafi Group - which holds about a 20-percent position in Zain and would round up an additional 26 percent from small shareholders - agreed to sell the stake to a consortium led by India's Vavasi Group and including state-run regional telecoms BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, as well as Malaysian billionaire Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary.

The group will pay 2 dinars a share for Zain, valuing the stake in the Arab world's third largest telecommunications company at about $13.7 billion, making it one of the biggest overseas acquisitions of a Gulf region company.

Earlier this week, Securities Group said that it was studying a bid to buy a stake of up to 24.6 percent stake in telecom firm Zain held by the country's sovereign wealth fund, Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA).

"When we talked about KIA, that was for Securities Group's account, our own assets ... but today we are talking about off balance sheet, it's for clients' accounts," Securities Group chairman Ali al-Mousa told Reuters.

The statement said it was up to the deal managers to decide whether they needed to use the shares offered by Securities Group clients or not. (Reuters)

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