The death in mid-April of Nasser al-Kharafi, the former chairman of the Kharafi Group, may prove to be a further setback to the planned sale of a 46% stake in Zain, Kuwait's largest mobile-phone company. The Kharafi family, estimated to be worth US$10.4bn by Forbes magazine, is the wealthiest in the country and owns the Kharafi Group, the second-largest shareholder in Zain. The conglomerate had been keen to sell its Zain shares after it was badly affected by the global financial crisis and domestic real estate crash.

In March the UAE's Etisalat withdrew its bid to buy a controlling 46% stake in Zain, following ongoing setbacks (April 2011, Economic policy). The US$11.7bn sale was launched in September 2010 but has faced political and shareholder opposition. In early March Zain's board accepted a joint bid by the Kingdom Holding Company (whose chairman is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of the Saudi king) and the Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco) for its 25% stake in Zain Saudi Arabia. As Etisalat has existing operations in Saudi Arabia, the sale of Zain's Saudi assets was a precondition for the deal.

A new Capital Market Law, which came into effect in March, means that any company seeking to acquire more than 30% of a listed Kuwaiti entity must offer the same share price to all other shareholders.