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All branches of NBK will act as receiving bank.

Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Company KSC "Zain" announces the commencement of subscription to its capital increase; that will run throughout the period August 17 to September 18, 2008. This capital increase is expected to raise USD 4.5 billion which the company will utilize to finance future expansion plans and meet financial commitments.

The capital increase subscription price is 850 fils (approximately USD 3.20) per share i.e. a par value of 100 fils per share plus a premium of 750 fils. Zain's current share price has been adjusted since March 11, 2008 to fully reflect the impact of the capital increase and the issuance of the new shares.

All branches of National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) will provide a prospectus and accept application forms with payment from Zain shareholders who are eligible to subscribe to the capital increase, namely those shareholders of record on 10 March 2008, the date the company held it's ordinary and extraordinary General Assembly Meeting approving the capital increase. NBK was chosen as the receiving bank due to its exceptional record in managing Zain's previous capital increase back in November 2005 as well as having an extensive branch network in Kuwait and abroad.

Zain CEO Dr. Saad Al-Barrak said "Our shareholders' confidence has always been the cornerstone on which Zain has based all its decisions ever since the Group launched its strategic profitable expansion strategy in 2003. This confidence has been crucial in Zain achieving its major successes to date, becoming one of the fastest growing mobile telecommunications company in the world".

Zain has achieved unprecedented leaps in the mobile telecommunications sector over the past 5 years to be now present in 22 countries serving over 50 million active customers. The expansion strategy has yielded considerable rewards for the company whereby its shareholders' equity has reached USD $6.4 billion today, with impressive financial results for the first half of 2008 whereby revenues of USD 3.49 billion and profits of USD 552 million were attained.

Al-Barrak concluded "that all the Group's financial indicators are now set to witness exponential growth on the back of Zain's huge investments in network infrastructure in many of the Middle East and African markets in which we operate. This capital increase will be instrumental in supporting our target of Zain becoming one of the top-ten global mobile telecom operators in the world by 2011".

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