Zain’s long time CEO (since 2002), Dr Saad Al Barrak, has stepped down. In a short statement to the Kuwaiti Stock Exchange, the Kuwati-based Middle East and African mobile giant said that Al Barrak has “handed in his resignation to the chairman of the board and the chairman will present the resignation to board members to look into the matter.”
Since Al Barrak was both managing director and deputy chairman of the firm, his resignation could trigger a major shift in strategy at the group. He was responsible for an aggressive period of expansion, but progress has stalled recently following attempts to sell off a large chunk of the company.
As a reminder, Al Barrak reined Zain during the company’s $3.4 billion acquisition of Netherlands-based Celtel in 2005. The idea was to enter numerous markets in Africa and eventually become a top ten global operator by 2011. That strategy, however, hasn’t proved to work, as many of Zain’s African networks ended up being be less profitable than expected.
Commenting on Al Barrak’s resignation, telecom analyst at Shuaa Capital – Simon Simonian said: “I see [Al Barrak’s] resignation as a result of the different agendas between the shareholders and the management. He wanted to continue to build and grow the company.”
[Via: GSMA]