Reuters/Baghdad

Asiacell is the only one of the three companies to have so far sought and received initial approval to list from the bourse regulator, the chief executive of the Iraq Stock Exchange said in early August
Iraq’s three main mobile phone companies have appealed against a communications regulator decision to fine them for failing to list on the local stock exchange, the phone operators and a senior official at the watchdog said yesterday.
Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission (CMC) decided to fine Zain, Asiacell and Korek for missing an August 2011 deadline to list on the local bourse as a condition of their $1.25bn operating licences.
The CMC on July 5 fined the Iraq unit of Kuwait telecoms firm Zain, Iraq’s No 1 mobile operator, $12,864 a day starting from September 1, 2011.
This followed fines in June for Asiacell, majority-owned by Qatar Telecom, of $8,500 a day and for Korek, in which France Telecom and Kuwait’s Agility have stakes, of $2,500 a day. Both penalties were also backdated.
Ahmed Alomary, a CMC commissioner, said Asiacell and Korek had both paid the fine but also appealed the decision to an appeal body affiliated with the Iraqi Judiciary council.
Zain, which has an estimated 53% market share in Iraq, has not yet paid the fine because its Iraqi bank accounts have been frozen because of a previous unpaid fine for putting 5mn sim cards into the market without permission.
It has also appealed the fine related to the bourse listing, Alomary said.
“We should not be penalised as this delay was beyond our control due to some governmental bureaucratic procedures and other matters,” Zain said in a statement, adding it had asked for the fine to be cancelled.
The company said that paying the daily sum would bring the total annual penalty close to $4.67mn.
Asiacell said it had paid the fine, the equivalent of 3,350mn Iraqi Dinar ($2.88mn) annually.
Korek was not immediately available for comment.
Asiacell is the only one of the three companies to have so far sought and received initial approval to list from the bourse regulator, the chief executive of the Iraq Stock Exchange said in early August.
Alomary expects Asiacell shares to be traded in early 2013.
Iraq did not have a mobile phone market under Saddam Hussein and the sector has blossomed since his fall from power in 2003 to become the country’s fastest growing industry in the country after oil.
Zain Iraq unit fine reaches $4.7mn
Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co, better known as Zain Group, said the fine levied on its Iraqi unit for failing to list on the local stock market has reached $4.7mn, while discussions with the regulator over the penalty are ongoing.
“The company wishes to clarify that these fines have been applied to all telecommunications companies operating in Iraq, not just Zain Iraq, and the amount of the fine if applied effectively will be approximately $4.67mn to date,” Zain Group said in a statement on the Iraq stock exchange yesterday.
Negotiations with the relevant Iraqi authorities to reach an amicable solution to the situation are continuing, it added.
Zain Group’s statement comes a day after it was revealed that Iraqi authorities had frozen some of its bank accounts there.
A company spokesman said that the bank accounts were frozen due to its failure to list on Iraq’s bourse and not because it issued 5mn SIM cards illegally, a move that resulted in a separate $262mn fine.
Under the 15-year licences awarded to Iraq’s mobile phone operators in August 2007, telecom operators were required to sell a 25% stake in the company through a share sale and list on the local exchange within four years. All operators missed the August 2011 deadline.