Cell phone giants mum on Zain ‘sale’

• MTN declines to comment on interests in Kenya operation

Major mobile telephony networks have maintained loud silence in the face of the reported impending sale of Zain’s African interests.

A Kuwaiti paper reported last week that Zain, formerly MTC Kuwait, was about to be sold to an unnamed French network.

Zain, the telephony firm, operates in Africa under the trade name Celtel Africa and is the second largest operator in Kenya.

Since the reports broke out, speculation has revolved around possible buyers with suggestion that the Kenya outfit could end up in the hands of MTN Group, the powerful South African transnational.

“The MTN Group cannot comment on market speculation,” group spokesman Ms Nozipho January-Bardill said in response to our enquiries.

Reuters quoted a Nigerian paper claiming Vivendi, the French group that sold Celtel Kenya to MTC, was in talks for the $12 billion (Sh960 billion) buyout. The firm, which sold the Kenya operation for $230 million, declined to comment on the issue.

Another French firm, Orange, which owns majority shares in Telkom Kenya, has been more aggressive in GSM acquisition in recent years, a reason why some bloggers have been inclined to link the buyout to them.

MTN speculation has particularly centred on Kenya — which became the 13th African market for Orange after it bought a 51 per cent stake in Telkom for $390 million — and our enquiries were specifically about Kenya and Congo DR.

MTN has for years been known to covet the Kenyan market, being the only area in the region where it has no footprint.

It failed to buy KenCell after part-owner Naushad Merali secured the deal for MTC in 2005. Lately, it bought a stake in data vendor UUNet which is well represented here.

Recently, media reports linked it to the sale of Econet shares in Kenya’s yu network dominated by Essar of India.

If the impending sale is confirmed, it would come at a time most Kenyan networks are facing hard times especially due to the stiff competition in the industry.