Barrak has resigned as telecoms operator Zain Saudi Arabia's chief executive, the company said Tuesday, two weeks after a consortium withdrew plans to buy a 25 percent stake. Khalid Al-Omar will take over as chief executive and managing director with immediate effect, while Badr Al-Kharafi has been appointed to the board, the company said in a statement to the Saudi bourse. Zain Saudi shares closed 1.7 percent lower on the Saudi bourse Tuesday. Bahrain Telecommunications Co. and Kingdom Holding Co. withdrew a joint $950 million bid for a 25 percent stake owned by Kuwait's Zain last month, while Al-Barrak also tried to put together his own consortium to buy out Zain and allow him to remain in charge. Barrak was also the former chief executive of Zain and was the architect of Zain's rapid expansion in the previous decade, when Zain claimed to be the fourth largest telecoms carrier globally, with operations in 23 countries. Zain has since retrenched to become a seven-licence carrier, selling its African operations to India's Bharti Airtel for $9 billion in 2010, with indebted shareholder the Kharafi Group seen as the main driver for this change in strategy. Kharafi also failed in two attempts to sell controlling stakes in Zain.
