Bahrain’s Kalaam Telecom acquires Kuwaiti Zajil to become amongst top three ISPs in GCC

Kalaam Telecom, Bahrain’s technology solutions provider, announced the acquisition of Zajil International Telecom, one of Kuwait’s longest-established ISP and ICT services companies, with the aim of creating a regional powerhouse which will drive digital transformation in the GCC region and beyond.

The acquisition will create a combined entity with revenue of $100 million, with data centers in five countries, network Point of Presence in 25 countries, and a subsea and land cable network that connects three continents. Kalaam will be among the top three ISPs in the GCC and will be the only operator with an ISP licence for Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Kalaam has grown rapidly, from a privately-owned local operator to become a regional telecom leader serving a broad base of enterprise, wholesale and channel customers. The acquisition of Zajil empowers Kalaam Group to become a full stack one-stop, end-to-end solutions provider of choice for the local & regional enterprise market and the international wholesale business. Kalaam has impressively evolved from being a pure ISP to become a 360 degree digital solutions provider, building a full stack Industry customized ecosystem of ICT solutions, including Cloud, Security, Data Center, IOT, AI and Unified communications for its customers.”

With its terrestrial fiber cable system, KNOT which spans 1,400 km across GCC, and Zajil’s consortium ownership in EIG Europe India Gateway, a 15,000 KM international fiber optic submarine cable system that links 12 countries across three continents., the combined group will be able to offer redundant, secure and fast access to its Enterprise & Wholesale customers, for reaching their applications, data, workloads and other services on the Cloud or for connecting their regional & international branches.

Bahrain’s Kalaam Telecom acquires Kuwaiti ISP leader Zajil to create $100m technology solutions company with licenses Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain

“The combined network will provide footprint in 25 countries in MENA, Europe, US and Asia with 53 fully owned Point of Presence to deliver all the product lines, and industry-specific solutions for the banking, oil and gas, retail, telecoms and transportation sectors,” said Veer Passi, CEO of Kalaam Telecom.

“Zajil Telecom was the first ISP in Kuwait and has built on 30 years of experience to be recognized today as a leading information technology and communication service provider in the MENA region. The company is a regional leader in MPLS solutions, with a global customer base and network. With the acquisition of Zajil, Kalaam Telecom will be uniquely positioned as the clear market leader, expanding its enterprise solutions across the MENA region, Europe, US and Asia. The combination of services and infrastructure brought together by the Zajil and Kalaam Telecom merger will result in the delivery of more advanced and industry-specific solutions.” said Mohammad Al-Tuwaijri, Chairman, Zajil Telecom.

The company will continue to serve Zajil’s corporate customer base with specialized consulting and industry specific solutions in banking, oil & gas, retail, telecommunications, and transportation verticals, and will also incorporate Zajil’s data centres in Bahrain, Jordan, KSA, UAE and the UK into its portfolio of offerings.

“This acquisition is consistent with Kalaam’s history of adding to its portfolio high quality companies and consolidating regional ISPs into one strong, efficient, scalable and, profitable platform. Kalaam’s two-pronged growth strategy of organic and acquisition-led expansion has enabled it to build a unique regional telecom platform focusing on the regionally underserved enterprise market. This successful strategy has created significant value for all its stakeholders,” said Rabih I. Khoury, Managing Partner of MEVP, one of the leading technology VC asset managers in MENA.

“Corporate customers today require innovative solutions that attend to their continuously evolving business needs, which is where a focused telecom solution provider such as Kalaam comes into play to respond quickly to enterprises with a fully tailored approach. Kalaam’s presence in multiple countries makes it uniquely situated to be the one stop digital solutions provider and a preferred partner to regional and international customers,” said Javier Alvarez, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Delta Partners, the leading telecom management consultancy firm.