Emerging markets telecoms giant Zain is to take a majority interest in Palestinian operator Paltel in a share swap deal which will merge Paltel with Zain Jordan.

Zain will take an equity shareholding of 56.53 per cent in Paltel, a publicly listed carrier, in exchange for Paltel owning 100 per cent of Zain Jordan.

The merger will give the current Paltel shareholders 41.43 per cent of the merged entity.

The mobile operation in Palestine, which currently operates under the Jawwal brand, will be rebranded to Zain by the end of 2009, and will also join Zain’s One Network roaming platform as the 19th participating country.

The combination of both Zain Jordan and Paltel will produce a business group which will generate over $1bn in revenues and $300m in net income in 2009, the companies said.

Paltel has a customer base of 1.5 million active mobile customers and over 363,000 fixed line customers, as well as 78,000 ADSL customers as of March 31, 2009, which will join Zain Jordan’s 2.35 million active mobile customers.