Ooredoo and Zain close first step of 4,000-tower regional platform

Summary

• Ooredoo and Zain completed the first closing of a shared regional towers platform Thursday.
• The venture combines Qatar's Al Barajah and Kuwait's ITK, roughly 4,000 towers, owned 50-50.
• Pooling passive infrastructure frees capital at both operators while reshaping ownership of Gulf digital networks.

The latest

Roughly 4,000 telecom towers across Qatar and Kuwait moved into a single jointly owned vehicle on Thursday, as Ooredoo and Zain Group announced the first closing of their regional towers platform. The two operators will each hold 50%, according to a disclosure filed with the Qatar Stock Exchange. Additional tower portfolios are expected to fold into the platform in stages.

Details

• The assets: The first closing brings together Ooredoo's Qatari tower assets, known as Al Barajah, and Zain's Kuwaiti tower unit ITK, under one platform, the disclosure said. Combined, the two portfolios account for roughly 4,000 telecom towers, the companies said, making this the founding perimeter of the venture rather than its final size.
• The ownership split: The platform is owned 50-50 by Ooredoo and Zain, with neither operator taking a controlling stake, according to the filing. The structure keeps both groups as equal partners in a shared asset base rather than one buying out the other's infrastructure.
• What expands next: Further tower portfolios are expected to be merged into the platform gradually, the companies said, conditional on securing regulatory approvals. The disclosure did not identify which markets or portfolios would be added, nor set a timetable for those transfers.
• What stays behind: Each operator will retain its own active infrastructure, including network equipment, software and intellectual property rights used to run its networks, according to the statement. That keeps the shared venture limited to passive tower assets, leaving competitive network performance in the hands of each company separately.
• The listings: Ooredoo trades on the Qatar Stock Exchange under the ticker ORDS, while Mobile Telecommunications Company, operating as Zain Group, trades in Kuwait under ZAIN. The announcement was made through a Qatar Stock Exchange disclosure dated 22 October 2026.
• The capital logic: Tower-sharing structures of this type consolidate duplicated passive assets into one vehicle, allowing operators to lift capital efficiency and reduce separate spending on masts and sites. The companies framed the closing as the step that paves the way for launching the joint regional platform.
• The regulatory gate: Expansion beyond Qatar and Kuwait depends on approvals from regulators in the markets concerned, the companies said. No financial terms, valuation or consideration for the first closing were disclosed in the filing.
• The phrasing: The two groups described the transaction as an arrangement that "paves the way" for a joint regional towers platform, indicating the first closing is the opening stage of a broader build rather than a completed consolidation.

Background

Telecom operators across several regions have moved tower assets into separate or shared entities in recent years, splitting passive infrastructure from the active networks that differentiate competing carriers.

Between the lines

The 50-50 split and the retention of active equipment by each operator mark the limits of this cooperation: Ooredoo and Zain are sharing masts, not networks, and remain competitors where service quality is decided. The staged structure, tied to regulatory approvals, suggests the eventual scale of the platform is still being negotiated market by market.

What's next

Watch for regulatory clearances in additional markets, the identity of the next tower portfolios to be folded in, and any disclosure of valuation or financial terms in subsequent filings by either company.

Source: Qatar Stock Exchange disclosure