Now that Etisalat's bid for Zain has been confirmed and clarified, analysts are debating the most important outstanding issue: is the price right?
The early verdict from analysts is that the telecommunications operator made a reasonable bid, one that should provide a boost to the share price in the long term if accepted.
Etisalat offered last week to buy out 46 per cent of Zain at 1.7 Kuwaiti dinars a share, which sent the share price down as some investors wondered if the deal was too expensive. Etisalat shares closed off 0.4 per cent yesterday at Dh10.70.
At between 10 and 12 times earnings, depending on which analyst is doing the calculations, the transaction is only slightly pricier than Zain's deal in June to sell its African assets to Bharti Telecom and France Telecom's deal to buy Meditel, the Moroccan operator.
But those sales occurred at a more depressed point in the cycle, so the Etisalat offer does not seem off the benchmark. It is no secret that Etisalat has been trying to increase its foothold in the region. If the offer is approved, it would gain access to the high-growth markets of Iraq and Sudan.
Etisalat previously tried to buy its way into Iraq, with no success, and its attempts to acquire a Global System Market (GSM) licence in Sudan have failed. The tricky part of the deal is Saudi Arabia. Etisalat would probably have to choose to unload its stake in Mobily or Zain Saudi in order to please the Saudi telecoms regulator.
Some analysts believe offloading Zain Saudi would make more sense because it could be of interest to Qatar's Qtel or even South Africa's MTN, which has been thwarted in its own expansion efforts.
In either case, for 1.7 dinars a share, Etisalat would be adding Zain's operations in Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait as well as a management contract in Lebanon and assets in Morocco.
Leaving aside Zain Saudi Arabia, the combined telecoms group would be the world's 19th largest in terms of total subscriptions, with about 138 million. The price is worth it to satisfy the company's desire for growth.
