Kuwaiti telecommunications firm Zain will launch its initial public offering (IPO) of its Bahraini arm in September.

The subscription period will start on 2 September and run until 16 September, says a filing on the Kuwaiti stock exchange. The announcement of the results of the subscription is due on 18 September.

The shares will be priced at 0.19 dinars. Zain is offering shares to both retail investors in Bahrain and Gulf institutional investors.

Gulf International Bank and The National Bank of Kuwait are the financial advisers and bookrunners on the issuance.

The issuance is the first IPO to be raised in Bahrain since aluminium firm Alba listed a proportion of its shares on the exchange in 2010.

The telecoms company is planning to use the proceeds of the issuance for the upgrade of its network infrastructure to improve coverage and expand capacity to meet demand for higher bandwidths.

It also plans to expand its current 4G LTE service across the country, according to a summary of the IPO prospectus.

The IPO announcement follows Zain Group’s announcement in July that its consolidated net income rose by 3 per cent in the first half of the year compared to the same time period yesterday, reaching $407m.

Revenues reached $2.23bn in the first six months of the year, also representing an increase of 3 per cent on the first half of 2013.

The company added 2.1 million new active customers over the last 12 months, currently serving 46.5 million people, as of 30 June 2014.