Ooredoo and Zain bring together about 4000 towers in first closing of regional platform
Key Facts
Ooredoo and Zain announced the first closing of their joint regional telecommunications tower platform, bringing together about 4000 towers in Qatar and Kuwait, according to an Ooredoo statement published on 22 October 2026. The closing includes Ooredoo Qatar's portfolio held by Al Abraaj and Zain Kuwait's portfolio, known as ITK. Each group holds a 50% stake in the regional platform, under the ownership structure announced in the closing statement. The two portfolios thus come under a common umbrella owned equally by the telecommunications groups. Bringing together tower assets in the two markets marks the start of implementation of the platform, through which the companies seek to maximise the value of passive infrastructure.
Ooredoo and Zain retain their respective active infrastructure, according to the closing statement, including the technology, software and intellectual property needed to operate and manage their networks. The arrangement keeps the technical components needed to manage telecommunications services with each group while pooling the tower portfolios in the joint platform. The project's original investment presentation outlines the services provided by the tower company, including leasing space for antennas and equipment. The services also include providing backup power, under the passive infrastructure business model presented when the project was established. Bader Al-Kharafi, vice-chairman and group chief executive of Zain, linked the platform's creation to the group's strategy to maximise the value of its assets. He said the venture enables "unlocking greater value from our assets while supporting a reduction in the region's carbon footprint".
The project's original definitive agreements date to 5 December 2023, when Ooredoo, Zain and TASC Towers Holding announced a cash-and-share deal. At signing, the project aimed to bring together about 30000 telecommunications towers, according to Ooredoo's original announcement. The project's estimated combined enterprise value was $2.2 billion when the agreements were announced. Its geographical scope covered Qatar, Kuwait, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq and Jordan, according to DLA Piper, Ooredoo's legal adviser on the transaction. The original agreement thus established a framework for combining tower portfolios in other Gulf and Arab markets within a regional venture broader than the two portfolios included in the current closing.
The original deal structure gave Ooredoo and Zain a 49.3% stake each, according to the legal adviser's statement, compared with the full equal ownership announced by the groups at the first closing. The original arrangement allocated the remaining ownership to TASC, which was to manage the joint venture's operations. Financially, Ooredoo's original announcement projected annual revenue of nearly $500 million once the venture was fully operational. It also projected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, after leases, exceeding $200 million annually. The announcement tied achievement of those targets to completion of the closings in all countries covered by the project, as forecasts for full operation of the portfolios to be combined.
The first closing followed a process of regulatory approvals and operational separation of assets in Qatar. Ooredoo said in its annual results that it had secured Qatari regulatory approval towards the end of 2025. The group expected at the time to complete the first tower closing in early 2026, before it was actually announced in October. On 4 June 2026, Ooredoo launched Al Abraaj to operate and manage its passive tower assets in Qatar independently. The company was launched after securing Qatari regulatory approvals, including approval from the Communications Regulatory Authority, according to Ooredoo's establishment statement. The group described the step as "the first operational separation under Ooredoo's tower initiative", with the company's portfolio subsequently becoming part of the platform's first closing.
In the next phase, the companies intend to integrate additional tower portfolios gradually into the regional platform, according to the first-closing statement. Inclusion of those portfolios depends on meeting closing conditions and obtaining regulatory and other required approvals. The groups expect the expansion to create value through economies of scale enabled by pooling assets. Expected sources of value also include improved capital efficiency and adoption of a dedicated operating model for passive infrastructure. As its operations expand, the platform will provide "infrastructure as a service", under the vision announced by the companies for the next stage of the project's development.