IPO in Kuwait’s third cellco expected soon

The Kuwaiti government is looking at holding an initial public offering (IPO) of shares in the country’s third national mobile licensee within the next few months. A report from Reuters cites an official from the Ministry of Commerce who says the IPO could go ahead as early as June after the government missed its February target date. The state will offer the public a 50% stake in the as-yet unnamed operator; a 26% interest was sold to Saudi Telecom Company (STC) for USD934.9 million in November last year, with government agencies retaining 24%. The third network is expected to be launched in the fourth quarter of this year to compete alongside the two incumbents, Mobile Telecommunications Company (Zain) and National Mobile Telecommunications Company (Wataniya). The country was home to 2.77 million cellular subscribers and had a mobile penetration rate of 105.5% at the end of 2007, according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database.