Zain yesterday voted out a key board member who opposed selling the company to Etisalat, reviving the possibility of a US$12 billion (Dh44.07bn) buyout by the UAE telecommunications company.
As Zain shareholders yesterday approved a US$3.1bn dividend payout, two new board members were appointed, prompting speculation among analysts the Etisalat deal could be back on track.
Sheikh Khalifa Ali Al Sabah, a key shareholder in the company who was opposed to the Etisalat deal, was voted off the Zain board, a spokesman for the company confirmed. Sheikha Aida Salem Al Ali Al Sabah has also left the board, the spokesman said.
The board members were replaced by Bader al Kharafi of the Kharafi Group, and Sheikha al Bahar of the National Bank of Kuwait. The chairman of the Kharafi Group is Nasser al Kharafi, a Kuwaiti billionaire who was a major proponent of the sale of Zain to Etisalat.
Disagreement among members of the previous board was cited by Etisalat as one of the major reasons behind dropping its $12bn bid for control of Zain. Other barriers to the deal included regional unrest and the failure of a sale of Zain's stake in Zain Saudi Arabia.
Irfan Ellam, a telecoms analyst with Al Mal Capital, said the change in the board could mean the Etisalat deal was back on track.
"If Kharafi has got control of the board, and if he's still a willing seller … that could leave the door open for Etisalat to return to the table," said Mr Ellam.
The regional unrest is abating, and the sale of Zain's Saudi Arabia unit is on track - making a sale of Zain to Etisalat more likely, he added. "A catalyst for Etisalat maybe coming back in could be a sale of the Saudi assets."
A divestment of Zain's 25 per cent stake in Zain Saudi Arabia was a precondition of the Etisalat deal, because the UAE company already has operations in Saudi Arabia.
Zain Group is still pursuing a sale of its Saudi operations to Kingdom Holding, an investment company controlled by the Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and the Bahraini telecoms firm Batelco.
It emerged yesterday that Zain Saudi Arabia, which is 25 per cent owned by Zain Group, has signed a two-year refinancing agreement worth 2.25bn Saudi riyals (Dh2.2bn). Saudi Arabia's third mobile operator will use the Sharia-compliant refinancing to help reduce costs and finance future growth, it said in a statement issued to the Saudi Arabia stock exchange.
"Zain Saudi Arabia completed a refinancing agreement, which complies with Sharia laws, on April 11," the statement said. Arab National Bank led the consortium of banks behind the refinancing deal. Other banks included Banque Saudi Fransi and Gulf International Bank, based in Bahrain.
Mr Ellam said Zain Saudi's refinancing move was not necessarily related to the proposed sale of a 25 per cent stake. "It's good housekeeping - to try to reduce the cost of financing," he said. But he added the sale of the stake in Zain Saudi was clearly progressing. "The intentions are there to complete it," he said.
Asaad al Banwan, the Zain Group chairman, said at the annual shareholder meeting a 200 fils per share dividend would be distributed within 10 days. Within the range predicted by analysts, it comes after last year's $9bn sale of Zain's African assets to India's Bharti Airtel.
Mr Ellam said the payout could cause Etisalat to lower its potential offer for Zain, given the previous bid of 1.7 Kuwaiti dinars per share. "If Etisalat were to return to the table, their offer would probably be lower, at around 1.5 dinars, because the previous offer assumed Etisalat would receive the dividend payment."
bflanagan@thenational.ae
1971: The Year The Music Changed Everything
Director: Asif Kapadia
4/5
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Results
United States beat UAE by three wickets
United States beat Scotland by 35 runs
UAE v Scotland – no result
United States beat UAE by 98 runs
Scotland beat United States by four wickets
Fixtures
Sunday, 10am, ICC Academy, Dubai - UAE v Scotland
Admission is free
ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
Guide to intelligent investing
Investing success often hinges on discipline and perspective. As markets fluctuate, remember these guiding principles:
- Stay invested: Time in the market, not timing the market, is critical to long-term gains.
- Rational thinking: Breathe and avoid emotional decision-making; let logic and planning guide your actions.
- Strategic patience: Understand why you’re investing and allow time for your strategies to unfold.
How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
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The specs
Engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: nine-speed
Power: 542bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: Dh848,000
On sale: now
The five pillars of Islam
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
MATCH INFO
Borussia Dortmund 0
Bayern Munich 1 (Kimmich 43')
Man of the match: Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
FINAL LEADERBOARD
1. Jordan Spieth (USA) 65 69 65 69 - 12-under-par
2. Matt Kuchar (USA) 65 71 66 69 - 9-under
3. Li Haotong (CHN) 69 73 69 63 - 6-under
T4. Rory McIlroy (NIR) 71 68 69 67 - 5-under
T4. Rafael Cabrera-Bello (ESP) 67 73 67 68 - 5-under
T6. Marc Leishman (AUS) 69 76 66 65 - 4-under
T6. Matthew Southgate (ENG) 72 72 67 65 - 4-under
T6. Brooks Koepka (USA) 65 72 68 71 - 4-under
T6. Branden Grace (RSA) 70 74 62 70 - 4-under
T6. Alexander Noren (SWE) 68 72 69 67 - 4-under
Haemoglobin disorders explained
Thalassaemia is part of a family of genetic conditions affecting the blood known as haemoglobin disorders.
Haemoglobin is a substance in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and a lack of it triggers anemia, leaving patients very weak, short of breath and pale.
The most severe type of the condition is typically inherited when both parents are carriers. Those patients often require regular blood transfusions - about 450 of the UAE's 2,000 thalassaemia patients - though frequent transfusions can lead to too much iron in the body and heart and liver problems.
The condition mainly affects people of Mediterranean, South Asian, South-East Asian and Middle Eastern origin. Saudi Arabia recorded 45,892 cases of carriers between 2004 and 2014.
A World Health Organisation study estimated that globally there are at least 950,000 'new carrier couples' every year and annually there are 1.33 million at-risk pregnancies.
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg