Home
/ Insights
/ Success Stories
/ Executing a Groundbreaking Sale and Leaseback Deal for Zain Group

Opportunity Opened

Executing a Groundbreaking Sale and Leaseback Deal for Zain Group

Opportunity Opened

Executing a Groundbreaking Sale and Leaseback Deal for Zain Group

Key Contacts

Fede Membrillera and Yana Kamburova

How do you stay competitive amidst an ever- increasing demand for high-speed connectivity?

In 2020, Zain Group (“Zain”) embarked on a forward-thinking strategy aimed at maximising the monetisation of its infrastructure through site co-location with other telecom operators.

Zain, one of the leading telecommunications operators in the Middle East and Africa, aspired to become a leader in the infrastructure space across the region. To achieve this vision, Zain entered a strategic partnership with TASC Towers, laying the foundation for subsequent sale and leaseback transactions that would improve operational efficiency, unlock value from their assets and meet the ever-increasing demand for reliable, high-speed connectivity. Zain required an advisor with extensive experience and proven success in previous tower transactions in the region and turned to FTI Capital Advisors (“FTICA”) for financial and strategic advisory services.

Our Impact

FTICA enabled Zain to divest 4,968 towers to TASC Towers Iraq for USD180 million, significantly enhancing its infrastructure efficiency through the site co-location strategy, reducing its carbon footprint in alignment with its net-zero goals and enhancing its overall customer experience. The deal set the foundation for a subsequent transformative TowerCo joint venture with Ooredoo Group and the resulting expansion across key regional markets.

By the Numbers

An Innovative Sale and Leaseback Strategy

$180M

Tower Sale and Leaseback Deal Achieved

4,968

Towers Divested

2050

2050 Net-Zero Goals Facilitated

Our team guided Zain’s strategy to become a leader in infrastructure monetisation, establishing a foundational partnership with TASC Towers for future sale and leaseback transactions.

FTICA was awarded the MEA TMT Deal of the Year at the TMT M&A Awards EMEA for advising Zain. The awards celebrate excellence in dealmaking and investment in digital infrastructure, technology and telecoms.

In crisis and transformation,real-world experience delivers.

Discover Our Expertise

Our Role

Bringing together extensive regional experience and proven success in tower transactions

The engagement was facilitated by FTICA’s pre-existing professional relationships with Zain's decision-makers and our proactive efforts to show how our experience and capabilities could improve operational efficiency, create shareholder value and enable investments in network upgrades and cutting-edge technologies so Zain could focus on its core business and customers.

FTICA guided the execution of the transformative tower sale and leaseback deals, ensuring seamless collaboration and optimal outcomes for both Zain and TASC.
Our experts served as the lead M&A advisor in the transaction, guiding Zain through the sale process by providing expertise, fostering collaboration and ensuring the best commercial and operational outcomes for both Zain and TASC.
Our team helped Zain mitigate risks and navigate the complexities of the Iraqi market, ensuring the successful execution of the sale and leaseback initiative.

Related Experts

Discover Your Team

Real-world experience that delivers.

See why FTI Consulting is the leading global expert firm for organizations facing crisis and transformation.

Discover Our Expertise

Deep Expertise in Action

See how our expert-driven, industry-focused approach produces real results in an increasingly complex world.

All Success Stories

Deal Done

Unlocking Value and Powering Growth for STARZPLAY

Over previous investment rounds, STARZPLAY onboarded a number of investors with different objectives and investment approaches, creating a fragmented capital table that was no longer suited for the objectives of the company. To scale the business, STARZPLAY required additional capital, as well as a strategic investor who would be able to support the company through the next growth chapter, and it appointed FTI Capital Advisors (“FTICA”) as a lead financial advisor.

Brand Enhanced

Driving Investor Demand for Parkin’s Record-Breaking IPO

While Parkin had zero brand visibility and profile with key stakeholders, its association with the RTA was bound to invite scrutiny and comparisons between the performance, success and outlook of other recent RTA IPOs. Ahead of its planned listing on the DFM, Parkin engaged FTI Consulting to develop and implement a 360-degree communications strategy to raise brand awareness, tell its equity story and highlight its market leadership position, operating model and growth drivers.

Savings Uncovered

Identifying $42 Million in Cost-Saving Opportunities Amid Operating Model Redesign

A Latin America-based enterprise telecom provider wanted to redesign its organization and operating model. Turning to FTI Consulting for support, it was able to identify a number of meaningful cost-saving initiatives.

Strategy Strengthened

Assessing Financial Modeling and Boosting Capital Efficiency for Clearcover Insurance

FTI Consulting was engaged to verify the veracity of the financial model and identify ways to improve the company’s overall capital efficiency.

Performance Unleashed

Project Management Implementation at €6.5 Billion Technology Plant Leads to a Global Digital Transformation

A global engineering and design firm needed FTI Consulting’s expertise to course-correct a stalled implementation of Hexagon EcoSys Projects that was being used to manage the build-out of a €6.5B semiconductor plant owned by a Forbes 100 company. The original implementation stalled due to the lack of people with the industry expertise needed to translate requirements from the business to the EcoSys Projects tool.

Value Protected

Defending Reputation and Keeping OpenAI’s Nearly $1 Trillion IPO on Track

In March 2019, OpenAI Inc. — a nonprofit organization founded in 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, now known as The OpenAI Foundation — publicly announced the formation of a for-profit affiliate, now known as OpenAI Group PBC, that would enable OpenAI to raise many billions of dollars in capital investment. In August 2024, Mr. Musk, who had resigned from the nonprofit’s board of directors in February 2018, brought a lawsuit alleging, among other things, that the OpenAI defendants, with the assistance of Microsoft, had broken promises to use his charitable contributions to maintain OpenAI as a nonprofit organization and prioritized profits over the founding mission. At trial, Mr. Musk asserted claims for breach of charitable trust, aiding and abetting breach of charitable trust, and restitution based on unjust enrichment. Among other remedies, Mr. Musk sought to unwind OpenAI’s 2025 recapitalization and disgorgement of OpenAI’s and Microsoft’s alleged wrongful gains.Compass Lexecon and Professors Ilya A. Strebulaev, Daniel Hemel and Somesh Jha were retained by the OpenAI defendants through their outside counsel, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, to act as consultants and expert witnesses in the litigation.

Current Opportunities

Discover a career at
the center of the action.

Explore Opportunities

Executing a Groundbreaking Sale and Leaseback Deal for Zain Group

Executing a Groundbreaking Sale and Leaseback Deal for Zain Group

How do you stay competitive amidst an ever- increasing demand for high-speed connectivity?

In 2020, Zain Group (“Zain”) embarked on a forward-thinking strategy aimed at maximising the monetisation of its infrastructure through site co-location with other telecom operators.

Our Impact