The Middle East and Africa-based telecom operator Zain has increased its ownership stake in Zain Iraq from 30 per cent to 62 per cent. The company has done this through exercising a pre-agreed call option between Zain and the owners of Athir National (Bahrain), which is one of the three founders of Atheer Telecom Iraq (Zain Iraq) for a total consideration of $34.477 million. Zain has been providing mobile telephony services in Iraq since December 2003 (previously under the name mtc-atheer). Zain Iraq was formed in January 2008 when mtc-atheer merged with Iraqna.
