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The Zain Group Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held at the Zain Group’s headquarters in Kuwait, attended with a quorum of 77.67% of shareholders whereby they were presented with the Zain Group’s 2025 annual report which highlights the financial statements, Governance and Auditors reports and the major achievements of Zain Group and its operations and subsidiaries across Middle East and Africa, for the year ended December 31, 2025. Additionally, Zain Group released its 2025 Sustainability Report. Notably, the shareholders approved all 12 items on the AGM agenda.
New Board elected for three years
Furthermore, the AGM elected the Zain Group Board of Directors for the next three years. The incoming Board members now constitute the following: Mrs Nour Nael Ahmed Al-Jassim (appointed by the KIA);
Mr Bader Nasser Al-Kharafi; Mr Mishari Asi Al-Hajri; Mr Atef bin Saeed bin Rashid Al Siyabi; Mr Nasser bin Sulaiman bin Hamad Al-Harthy; Mr Alaa El-Din bin Abdallah Bait Fadel; Mr Ghassan Khamees Ali-Hashar; Mr Ibrahim Said Al-Eisri; Mr Abdulrahman Mohammad Al-Asfour; and Dr Saad Ahmed Alnahedh. The Board meet immediately after the AGM and elected Mrs Nour Nael Ahmed Al-Jassim as Chair of the Board of Directors and Mr Bader Al-Kharafi as Vice-Chairman and Group CEO.
Strong financial performance and shareholder returns
During the AGM, Zain Group presented its financial results for the full-year 2025, whereby the company served 50.9 million customers, an annual increase of 4%.
In 2025, Zain Group delivered a solid financial performance, with consolidated revenue rising 14% year-on-year to KD 2.3 billion (USD 7.44 billion), the highest level in 16 years. Consolidated EBITDA reached KD 780 million (USD 2.54 billion), an increase of 11%, reflecting a healthy 34% EBITDA margin, while consolidated net income soared 103% to KD 239 million (USD 777 million), a 13‑year high. Earnings per share amounted to 55 fils (USD 0.18).
These results supported attractive shareholder returns. The 2025 annual cash dividend totaled 35 fils per share, representing a payout ratio of 63%, while total dividends distributed during the 2025 calendar year reached 60 fils per share. This performance underscores the strength of the company’s balance sheet and financial position as Zain grows the business and advances its transformation into a TechCo.
Excerpts from the Board of Directors statement at the AGM
The Board of Directors welcomes all shareholders and affiliated parties to the Annual General Assembly of Zain Group. Amid this rapidly changing environment, Zain Group’s ‘4WARD – Progress with Purpose’ strategy has remained steadfast in its ambition to build one of the region’s largest TechCo conglomerates, ready to power this new digital era. Across our markets, we have continued to align our strategic direction with global and regional trends, investing in advanced digital infrastructure, the latest technologies, and innovative services that support national development visions.
Throughout 2025, Zain strengthened its extensive network of partnerships and enhanced its technological capabilities to keep pace with the fast-evolving ICT sector. This approach has enabled the Group to protect its core business while unlocking new growth avenues in high-potential digital domains, ultimately generating sustainable value for shareholders.
The year 2025 reaffirmed Zain’s position as a regional digital powerhouse, diversified, resilient, and purpose-driven. By leading innovation and enabling communities across our markets to embrace digital transformation, Zain continues to play a pivotal role in shaping the region’s digital future.
We sincerely value the continued trust of our shareholders, which remains a cornerstone of our success. We are also very grateful to government bodies in Kuwait and across our markets for supporting the ICT sector and empowering Zain to provide meaningful connectivity to the communities, businesses, and governments we wholeheartedly serve.
Excerpts from Zain Group Vice-Chairman and Group CEO, Bader Al Kharafi’s AGM statement
‘4WARD – Progress with Purpose’: accelerating our TechCo evolution
2025 marked a pivotal first year for our ‘4WARD – Progress with Purpose’ corporate strategy, which is fast-tracking Zain’s evolution from a predominantly mobile-centric operator into a purpose-driven, customer-centric, future-ready regional TechCo. Our commitment to sustainable growth that fulfils our purpose of ‘Better Lives and Lasting Connections’ is reflected in our listing on Boursa Kuwait’s Premier Market and local listings in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Bahrain, underlining our core duty to enhance value for all stakeholders.
The Board and executive management have worked closely to execute the 4WARD strategy and fully capture the opportunities in our markets by focusing on four key strategic pillars: Customer Delight, Digital Zain, Purpose & Action, and Collaborative Growth. Throughout 2025, disciplined CAPEX, OPEX and monetization management, combined with the accelerated momentum of our growth verticals – Fintech, ZainTECH and ZOI – drove our key financial indicators to their highest levels in over a decade.
Targeted investments totaling USD 1.5 billion in network expansion, technology upgrades, fiber deployment, subsea cables, and AI and emerging technologies strengthened our capacity to elevate the customer experience and address the growing digital needs of individuals, enterprises and governments. These strategic CAPEX investments were key to driving a 4% increase in our customer base, which now stands at 50.9 million, and a 13% YoY growth in data revenues to USD 2.8 billion, representing 37% of total revenues and reinforcing our market leadership across an increasingly competitive landscape.
With 4WARD now completing its first year, we are confident that it has already generated the momentum needed to accelerate Zain’s evolution into an impactful, leading regional TechCo. This strategy is strengthening our growth, deepening our relevance in shaping societies, and continuing to elevate the Zain brand to new heights.
Robust growth across our markets and 5G leadership
All our main operations recorded solid financial results in 2025, giving us confidence in our ability to sustain growth in 2026 and beyond. Zain Kuwait, the Group’s flagship operator, maintained its market leadership with revenue growth of 4%, supported by expansion in the government and enterprise segments and the launch of 5G-Advanced services that are enhancing the customer experience.
Zain KSA recorded its highest-ever revenue, driven by its 5G network, B2B growth, and the success of its digital operator, Yaqoot, and micro-finance fintech platform, Tamam. Zain Iraq’s revenue grew 20%, fueled by sustained commercial momentum, continued network deployment of nearly 1,000 new sites.
In Sudan, the gradual restoration of the network, which saw 814 sites return to operation and brought 90% of the network in safe areas back online, drove exceptional customer and revenue growth, making it Zain’s most profitable operation in 2025. In Jordan and Bahrain, 5G expansion supported healthy revenue and customer growth, with their respective fintech platforms also delivering strong performance.
As a 5G leader across four markets – Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Jordan – underpinned by our fiber-to-the-home and subsea cable infrastructure, we will continue to invest at scale to maintain technology leadership, support customer growth, and capture new revenue opportunities.
Executing our 4WARD strategy: Tech platforms and growth verticals
The ‘4WARD – Progress with Purpose’ strategy sets Zain’s strategic direction from 2025 through 2030. Just over one year since launch, we have achieved meaningful progress across our technology platforms and priority growth verticals, demonstrating strong execution momentum and validating the strategy’s foundations.
In June 2025, Zain Kuwait’s launch of 5G-Advanced unlocked new horizons for Kuwait’s digital economy and innovation landscape, positioning the country as one of the first worldwide to deploy 5G-Advanced commercially. This pioneering move accelerated Kuwait’s progress as a regional digital hub and contributed significantly to Zain Kuwait’s revenue growth.
Through ZainTECH, we have accelerated our B2B digital and AI agenda, reinforcing Zain’s position as partner of choice for enterprises and governments. By collaborating with hyperscalers and global technology leaders, ZainTECH is advancing AI adoption, cloud migration, cybersecurity, data analytics, and digital transformation across the region, enabling clients to modernize operations, improve efficiency, and unlock new digital capabilities.
Similarly, Zain Omantel International (ZOI) has made significant strides in strengthening regional digital infrastructure and international connectivity, while playing a central role in expanding data center capacity and AI-ready infrastructure. Leveraging strategic partnerships in subsea cable systems linking Asia, Africa, and Europe, and access to more than 20 international submarine cables, ZOI has positioned Zain as a critical enabler of regional and cross-border digital traffic.
Scaling our fintech footprint remains a strategic priority. Zain now provides digital financial services across Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, Bahrain, and Sudan, serving both B2C and SME segments. We continue to broaden our offerings to include payments, remittances, micro-finance, and merchant and SME solutions, strengthening financial inclusion, increasing wallet engagement, and supporting SME digitization across our markets.
The launch and gradual expansion of Zain Insure in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan, alongside strategic partnerships in Saudi Arabia, reflects our ongoing transition into a TechCo delivering customer-first digital solutions that enhance livelihoods and simplify everyday experiences.
Regulatory engagement and compliance
As Zain’s footprint extends beyond traditional telecommunications into broader ICT and digital ecosystems, regulatory engagement and compliance have become even more critical to safeguarding operational continuity, investment sustainability, and long-term value creation. In this environment, Zain maintained a proactive regulatory posture, balancing robust compliance with strategic advocacy to enable innovation while mitigating regulatory risk. Our Regulatory Compliance Program (RCP) has now been successfully implemented across our footprint, further strengthening our regulatory frameworks and operational efficiency. We continue to engage with regulators through structured consultations, industry forums, targeted advocacy, and collaborative policy development, positioning Zain as a constructive partner in shaping forward-looking regulatory ecosystems.
Investing in venture capital funds and the startup ecosystem
Our venture investment arm, Zain Ventures, continues to deliver strong strategic and financial contributions. By end of 2025, Zain Ventures had invested approximately USD 156 million directly into startups at various growth stages and through leading venture capital funds. The portfolio includes high-profile, high-growth companies such as Revolut, SpaceX, xAI, and others that are contributing to long-term shareholder value.
We are equally focused on nurturing internal innovation. Through our internal innovation platform, ZAINIAC, employees are encouraged to submit, share, and collaborate on new ideas, fostering intrapreneurship and creativity within the company. We provide mentoring, workshops, and funding for selected initiatives to turn ideas into viable businesses.
Advancing our ESG leadership
Zain achieved significant progress across its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) agenda in 2025. We recorded upgrades in multiple global ESG indices, highlighted by an improvement in our MSCI ESG rating from ‘BBB’ to ‘A’ in September 2025. We also performed above the global telecom sector average in the S&P Global ESG Index and surpassed the global average in the FTSE4Good Index.
Major milestones were the A’ score from CDP and the approval of Zain’s Net-Zero targets by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), validating our Group-wide commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across our value chain by 2050.
On the social dimension, ESG translates into competitive advantage through talent, inclusion, and gender diversity at scale. Building an inclusive culture and a future-ready workforce enhances execution and customer experience. Initiatives such as our WE ABLE 2030 disability inclusion program, BE WELL mental wellbeing initiative, IDE University, and our Gender Diversity vision illustrate our deliberate approach to supporting our people and ensuring that digital progress leaves no one behind. These milestones reinforce Zain’s commitment to sustainability and robust governance and have taken our ESG leadership agenda to new levels.
Employer of choice and people-first culture
In 2025, Zain was ranked the number one telecommunications company in the MENA region on Forbes’ annual “World’s Best Employers” list, while also being ranked first in Kuwait and among the top three employers region-wide. This recognition reflects the seriousness of our commitment to responsible business conduct and building a thriving, diverse, and inclusive workplace.
Brand strength and customer engagement
The strength of the Zain brand continues to grow. According to Brand Finance’s 2026 rankings, Zain’s brand value increased 16.1% YoY to USD 4.04 billion, placing us among the top 25 strongest telecom brands and the top 35 most valuable telecom brands globally. Nineteen years after the Zain brand was launched in September 2007, this sustained growth reflects the success of our 4WARD strategy, our investment in compelling marketing and customer experiences, and the quality of our networks and services.
Today, we serve 50.9 million customers across our eight-country footprint and have more than 35.5 million social media followers. In 2025, our creative content generated over 4 billion views and around 1.5 billion interactions, making Zain one of the most appealing, inspirational, and recognized corporate brands in the region and internationally, and the ICT provider of choice for individuals, businesses, and governments.
Thank you
I would like to close by expressing my sincere appreciation, on behalf of the executive management team, to the people who power our progress. To our 9,000 colleagues across the Group, thank you for the discipline, creativity, and commitment you bring to our purpose every day. To our individual and corporate customers, government partners, and shareholders, thank you for the trust you place in Zain and for the role we all play together in strengthening an ecosystem that delivers meaningful connectivity to the communities we serve.
Looking ahead to 2026, our priority is to build on the strong first-year momentum of 4WARD and accelerate its execution across the Group. We will continue advancing our evolution into a TechCo by scaling network investments, strengthening digital platforms and capabilities, pursuing strategic growth opportunities, and developing the talent and operating model required to deliver at speed. Through deeper collaboration across our markets and with our partners, we aim to convert early momentum into sustainable, measurable progress, keeping Zain at the forefront of digital transformation in a fast-evolving mobile and ICT landscape and creating lasting value for all stakeholders.
Please feel free to download the online version of 2025 Zain Group Annual Report
Source: Zain Press Release
