Zain buys Orascom’s Iraqi assets

03 December 2007
Zain has bought rival telecoms giant Orascom’s Iraqi subsidiary IraQna for $1.2bn, bringing the Egyptian operator’s involvement in Iraq to an end.

Orascom Telecom’s decision to sell both its telecoms infrastructure and its customer base in Iraq means that a joint venture with Korek Telecom announced in September has been called off.
Naguib Sawiris, chief executive officer and chairman of the Egyptian operator, made no reference to the joint venture when he announced the sale of IraQna.
The Kuwaiti operator’s Iraq business MTC-Atheer now has 7.1 million customers after adding IraQna’s 3.2 million customers to its own 3.9 million.
The next largest operator in Iraq, Asiacell, which is 30 per cent owned by Qtel of Qatar, has 3.9 million customers.

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