Doha, Qatar - Ooredoo Group and Zain Group have completed the first closing of their regional tower deal, placing roughly 4,000 towers from Qatar and Kuwait into a jointly owned platform in which each operator holds 50%.
The towers come from two portfolios: Al Abraj, the tower arm of Ooredoo Qatar, and ITK, which carries the towers of Zain Kuwait. The two parents are listed as Ooredoo Q.P.S.C. (ticker: ORDS) and Mobile Telecommunications Company K.S.P.C. (ticker: ZAIN).
According to the operators, the deal should generate significant value through larger scale, capital efficiencies and an operating model dedicated to passive telecommunications infrastructure. They said the platform is built to improve capital efficiency, back the growth of digital infrastructure across the region and cut its carbon footprint.
As it grows, the platform will offer infrastructure-as-a-service, the companies said. That gives operators a more capital-efficient route to infrastructure while the region's digital networks continue to develop.
This first step comes after Kuwait's Competition Protection Authority cleared the joint venture's economic concentration, a decision Ooredoo announced on 23 September 2026. The clearance related to definitive agreements, made public on 5 December 2023, that set out a tower platform in several markets under equal ownership and joint control.
Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo, Group Chief Executive Officer of Ooredoo Group, said: “Completing this first closing marks an important milestone in building a regional tower platform designed to create significant value, with a clear path to expansion through additional market contributions.
“With this milestone, we are now executing across every digital infrastructure segment identified in our strategy as we continue building a leading regional portfolio.
“We thank the State of Qatar’s Communications Regulatory Authority and the Ministry of Municipality for their support and for contributing to a conducive regulatory environment throughout the approval process.”
Bader Al-Kharafi, Vice-Chairman & Group CEO of Zain, said: “This first closing of the tower platform marks a defining step in the evolution of digital infrastructure for both Zain and Ooredoo. It reflects our shared strategy of creating focused, scalable and sustainable platforms that unlock greater value from our assets while supporting the reduction of the region’s carbon footprint. We believe this tower platform will play an increasingly important role in strengthening our respective digital foundations and enabling the next wave of connectivity, innovation and economic growth for the communities we proudly serve. We thank the regulatory authorities in Kuwait for their visionary support in the approval process.”
Only the passive towers move into the platform. Each operator keeps its own active telecommunications infrastructure, along with the technology, software and intellectual property it needs to run and manage its network.
Further tower portfolios are expected to join the platform in stages, as each one meets its closing conditions and secures the regulatory and other approvals it needs.
