More on Zain - Al Barrak Resignation

The National (Abu Dhabi) attributes Saad's resignation to differences with the AlKharafi Group a major shareholder over the future direction of the company.

AlQabas (Kuwait) has two reports. 

1. The first is that AlBarrak has not resigned from Saudi Zain (in which Zain Kuwait owns 25%).  The Chairman of Saudi Zain, Amir Husam Bin Sa'ud AlSa'ud, is quoted as saying that he has not resigned and that he doesn't expect him to lose his seat on Saudi Zain's board.  AlBarrak is CEO at Saudi Zain.  In that article the board of Zain Kuwait is said to be looking to appoint someone with a completely different strategy than the previous incumbent (AlBarrak) in the areas of control over expenses and expansion.
2. The second is that it's expected that Zain Kuwait will choose Nabil Bin Salama, an ex Minister of Communications to take AlBarrak's place.  At this point I don't believe there's been a formal appointment so this is an unconfirmed report.

Turning to the strategic differences at Zain Kuwait, as I've written before some shareholders in Kuwait,

strapped for cash, have been looking to monetize their holdings in Zain to bail them out of current financial difficulties. 

The first plan was for Zain to sell off its African assets and then dividend the shareholders the proceeds.

The current plan is for these shareholders to undertake a secondary market transaction and sell the shares to a buyer - the current putative buyer is a consortium of Indian firms.  That seems to be taking a little longer than planned.  Which might raise questions as to whether it is still on track.

This resignation indicates that there may be a back-up plan to conserve the company's cash - which could be used  perhaps for dividends rather than future investments?

More in the earlier post (link above).