Kuwait's Zain said its chief executive, Saad Al-Barrak, had submitted his resignation but it gave no reason for the decision, highlighting uncertainties over the sale of a controlling stake in the firm. Shares of Zain, which is partly owned by Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund, has fell more than 3 percent on Wednesday after several media reported he would resign but recovered to be 0.31 percent higher by 1146 GMT. “Saad Al-Barrak has submitted his resignation to the chairman, and he will present the resignation to the board of directors to look into it,” Zain said in a statement to the Kuwaiti bourse on Wednesday. The statement did not give a reason for the resignation and Zain declined to comment. Al-Barrak will keep his post as chief executive of Zain Saudi Arabia, which is 25 percent owned by Kuwait's Zain, Prince Hussam bin Saud Al-Saud the chairman of the Saudi firm told Arabiya TV on Wednesday. Analysts have been sceptical that a drawn-out deal for Kuwaiti family conglomerate Kharafi Group, a major shareholder in Zain, to sell a 46 percent stake to a consortium of Asian investors will be completed. In September, Kharafi Group said it had agreed to sell the Zain stake to the consortium in a $13.7 billion deal that did not involve Zain management. Al-Barrak said in October that Zain had halted talks to sell its African assets to appease the buyers of the stake. The final deal was expected to be signed within four months of the announcement, but Kharafi group said last month that economic uncertainties had delayed the deal, which still stood. Simon Simonian, a telecom analyst at Dubai-based Shuaa Capital, said Al-Barrack may have become frustrated. “The main shareholder (Kharafi Group) has an agenda and the management has not been involved ... I think you could see it (Barrak's resignation) as a result of these events, of time just going by and nothing happens,” Simonian said. He also said other executives could follow Al-Barrack's lead as he would leave a void in management. “By stretching all this process and all this uncertainty, I think it has been destructive for the company,” said Simonian. “There is a team also who has been loyal to him, and have been working (with him) and have been there to build the company. Who will be running the ship?” Al-Barrak was appointed by Zain, formerly MTC, in 2002. Zain said on its website that since his appointment the company's “customer base has increased from 600,000 to a conglomerate of 23 operations with over 70 million active customers across the Middle East and Africa”. Naser Al-Nafisi, general manager for Al Joman Center for Economic Consultancy in Kuwait, said the focus would change after Al-Barrak stepped down. “Regarding Zain's strategy (after Barrak), we expect a cut back on expenses and expansion ... because it was his vision to be aggressive with regards to expansion,” Al-Nafisi said.
