Our Strengths
1. Our financial status
Our market capitalisation indicates Zain Group is competitively valued relative to its peers based on global benchmarks. The group’s strong financial backing was demonstrated in our April 2005 acquisition of Africa’s Celtel, which, at US$3.36 billion, was one of the biggest telecoms deal in the Middle East and Africa.
Our relatively debt-free and excellent cash-flow situation enabled us to easily arrange a US$2.4 billion bridging loan from a syndicate of bankers for the purchase of Celtel which was repaid by December 2005. Financial institutions across the globe have shown confidence in Zain by extending to us favorable credit facilities of over USD$6.7 billion in 2006 alone.
Zain has an extremely strong balance sheet, so we have multiple sources of funding that allow us to move forward with our expansion strategy.
Year on year, Zain Group continues to perform well financially to the satisfaction of shareholders. The group’s consolidated 12 month results for the Year 2008 have recorded the following:
- As at December 31, 2008, our customer base of 63.54 million increased by 50% compared to December 31, 2007;
- Our revenues of $7.44 billion increased by 26% compared to the same period in 2007;
- Our EBITDA of $2.78 billion increased by 15% compared to the same period in 2007;
- Our net profit of $1.2 billion increased by 6% compared to the same period in 2007.
In short: We regularly exceed our investors’ expectations, and we intend to continue doing so.
To view our latest financial results as of December 31, 2008 click here or to download our 2008 Annual Report,click here
2. Strong brand recognition
Across each of the group’s key markets, Zain has one of the most recognisable and strongest brand presences supported by strong promotion and sponsorship programmes. The Corporate Communications & Relations department of Zain Group in coordination with the marketing and communications departments of each individual operator work hand-in-hand in promoting Zain’s objectives and in supporting the communities in which we operate.
Zain is the dominant brand in one of the fastest-growing mobile markets in the world – the African and Arab world. On August 1, 2008 the company rebranded all its African 'Celtel' operations to Zain.
3. Zain Group Synergies
With clear strategic objectives and an integrated, convergent approach to customer service and market expansion, Zain is able to leverage its considerable resources across the group to maximise returns to shareholders. This goal has been realised by:
- Maintaining a technological edge across the whole group to achieve market differentiation across all the group’s operations;
- Providing unsurpassed customer service as a key competitive advantage to maintain and expand market share in each operation
- Exploiting group synergy at all levels (marketing, operational and technical) to reduce costs, to benefit from operational and technical development, and to provide unique services to Zain’s customers.
More specifically, having a number of operations across different markets enables Zain to:
- Leverage group benefits to provide advanced roaming services and better customer care to retain high-value customers;
- Leverage scale in purchasing power with suppliers
- Leverage resources, expertise and know-how from different areas of the group. For instance, Zain in Kuwait will be able to benefit in its commercial launch of 3G services from the experience gained from rolling out 3G in Bahrain.
