Shareholders in Kuwaiti telecom giant Zain have reached a preliminary agreement with Gulf and Asian investors to sell 46% of their stake, Al-Rai newspaper said in its Monday edition.

If the deal goes through it would be worth $15 billion, the paper said in an early edition that hit newsstands late Sunday.

The Kuwaiti investors are led by Al-Khorafi group, which holds 11% of Zain, and whose capitalisation stands at $23.2 billion, the report said.

The paper quoted sources familiar with the talks as saying that negotiations were being handled by Kuwait’s National Investments Co., the investment arm of Al-Khorafi group, the wealthiest family in Kuwait.

Last week, Zain shareholders abolished decades-old restrictions on ownership to enable foreign investors to take up a majority stake in the emirate’s oldest mobile operator.

The shareholders agreed at an extraordinary meeting to abolish two articles in the company’s statute which prevented any local or foreign investor from owning a stake of more than 5%.

Zain, Kuwait’s oldest mobile operator, has more than 65 million clients in 23 countries in the Middle East and Africa.

Zain, in which the state owns a 24.6%, is one of three mobile operators in Kuwait, along with National Telecommunications Co (Wataniya) and Kuwait Telecommunications Co.

Qatar Telecom owns a majority stake in Wataniya while VIVA is run by the Saudi Telecom Co.