JEDDAH – Zain Saudi's $1.69 billion rights issue was over-subscribed by 105.4 percent, the issue's lead manager Saudi Fransi Capital said in an emailed statement Saturday. The Kingdom's third telecom operator started a rights issue on July 10 which closed eight days later. The issuing price was set at SR10, without a premium, it said. "The rights issue was subscribed by more than 632 million shares with the receiving banks... This amounts to SR6.34 billion, a coverage of 105.4 percent of the rights issue shares," the firm said in the statement. Prior to the rights issue, Zain Saudi also cut its capital earlier this month to SR4.8 billion from SR14 billion to alleviate accumulated losses, which topped SR10 billion at the end of March. "With the finalization of the rights issue, the capital restructuring of Zain Saudi - which was set to improve the financial situation of the company - is complete," the statement said. Zain Saudi reported a narrowing second-quarter loss earlier. Saudi Arabia's No.3 telecoms operator, an affiliate of Kuwait's Zain, made a net loss of SR349 million ($93.1 million) in the three months to June 30. This compares with a net loss of SR448.2 million in the year-earlier period. – Reuters
