Zain Group receives $1.3 bln offer for Sudan business

Zain Group received a non-binding purchase offer from Invictus Holding Co (IHL) to acquire its entire stake in Zain Sudan and Kuwaiti Sudanese Holding Co for $1.3 billion, according to Zain Group.

As such, the Kuwaiti bourse, Zain said in a statement, “The board has decided to proceed with the due diligence process to provide the initial approval.”

Reuters reports that Zain’s board has initiated due diligence on the offer before providing initial approval. Kuwait Sudanese Holdings is a sister company to Zain Sudan providing ICT managed services.

In addition, Invictus Holding is a subsidiary of Sudanese conglomerate Dal Group, having interests in various sectors nationwide, including agriculture, automotive, energy, healthcare, and mining.

The offer does not include Zain’s unit in South Sudan, which was turned down from the original Zain Sudan unit after withdrawing from Sudan to gain independence.

It also clarified the deal did not include Zain’s business in South Sudan, a country that became independent several years after the operator began providing services to its citizens.

It is worth mentioning that currency devaluation has been a problem for Zain this year. The group claims that its earnings have been affected by instabilities across the first three quarters of 2021. However, it has seen an uptick in subscribers.

In Q3, it also pointed to positive subscriber additions in the market and changes being made to its pricing structure to mitigate foreign exchange losses.