Dow Jones and Reuters have some updated news on Kuwaiti telecom operator Zain's ongoing acquisition discussions to a Indian-led consortium.

Kuwait's Kharafi Group and a consortium led by India's Vavasi Group have named their advisers in the deal, momentarily sending Zain's stock by about 8 per cent to 1,080 Kuwaiti fils (Dh13.868). Kharafi retains BNP Paribas while Vavasi has hired Japanese bank Nomura.

"We have received an official letter from Nomura that it was appointed as lead financial adviser for Vavasi and other parties for the Zain deal," Kharafi told Reuters. "Talks for the Zain sale are still ongoing. We are talking with Vavasi as the leader of the consortium."

However, despite the announcement, investors played down the rally by the end of the day as Zain closed today's session back to its opening price of 1 Kuwaiti dinar or 1,000 fils.

What's important to note here is that Zain's closing price remains at a 50 per cent discount to what the Vavasi-led group is trying to acquire the telecom firm. Kharafi wants to sell its 46 per cent stake in Zain for 2 dinars, or about $13.7 billion (Dh50.3bn). So, judging by the market, investors still remain unconvinced - or at the very least, cautious - that this deal will not happen.

They may be on to something. India's junior telecom minister announced in parliament that state-run operators Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam will not be part of the Vavasi-led consortium on Monday. Aside from the adviser announcement, Vavasi has not commented on the minister's comments or provided an update to how discussions have been going.

(Photo credit: Andrew Henderson / The National) 

After Zain finally released its detailed financial statement for its third-quarter earnings (direct link to the PDF here), the regional telecommunication analysts earned their keep by releasing updated analysis reports.

Shuaa Capital's Simon Simonian breaks down the numbers, and what this means for the potential stake sale of Zain to a consortium of Indian and Malaysian firms after the break.

We may not have the iTunes Music Store or the Kindle here yet, but at least we've got Foursquare.

Yes, the mega-popular-with-the-geeks social networking application has just announced a 50-city global addition to its network with Dubai chosen as one of the lucky cities.

Foursquare is a bit tough to describe, but it's basically a real life social network tied to a gaming business model. For example, you get certain credits or titles associated with yourself everytime you visit a certain area (the Dubai Mall, for example). Keep visiting the same place and you'll become the "Mayor" of the Dubai Mall (within the confines of Foursquare, of course). It is (somewhat annoyingly) quite big with Twitter users.

In any case, it should be available to download through the iTunes App Store and the Android Market (if you've got one of those devices). No idea if the program works in Abu Dhabi or any other emirate, but given that the founder of the company expects to make Foursquare available everywhere, more UAE and Middle Eastern cities are likely on the way.

The National's favourite mono-syllabic UAE telecom operator announced their third-quarter earnings this morning (the story is here).

The financial numbers are impressive, to say the least (an almost 400 per cent gain in year-over-year profit, for example), but the interesting stat that really grabs your eye is how many new subscribers du signed up in the quarter.