UPDATE 2-Zain mulls offers for African operations -paper

(Adds Zain spokesman in paragraph 3)

By Rania El-Gamal

KUWAIT, June 30 (Reuters) - Kuwaiti telecoms company Zain (ZAIN.KW) is prepared to sell its African operations after receiving several offers including one from Europe's largest entertainment group, Vivendi (VIV.PA), a paper reported.

"Zain has no objection to go ahead with the deal in case the offered price was in line with the level Zain wants," Assistant Chief Executive for Business Development and Government Relations Barrak al-Subeih told Kuwaiti daily al-Anbaa in remarks published on Tuesday.

Zain spokesman Ibrahim Adel declined to comment on the report. "Zain has no comment on this story," he said.

Vivendi would also not comment on the report.

Zain, whose biggest shareholder is Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund, has spent heavily to expand and operates in 23 countries in the Middle East and Africa.

It has spent more than $12 billion in Africa since 2005, including nearly $3 billion in Nigeria, and said it planned to spend up to $2 billion more on the continent this year.

However, African media have reported in recent weeks that Zain was looking to sell its African business and would study bids made by other companies if no deal was reached with Vivendi.

The comments in Tuesday's al-Anbaa come after the chief executive of Zain Africa declined comment on June 23 on rumours the business may be sold to Vivendi.

If Zain, Kuwait's largest mobile operator, sold its African operations it would look for expansion opportunities in other areas with higher growth rates such as the Middle East or the Far East, the paper quoted al-Subeih as saying.

Subeih said, without specifying, that he expected Zain to post an "exceptional" profit in the second quarter compared with the 2008 period, the paper reported.

Last month, Zain Chief Executive Saad al-Barrak said he expected second-quarter net profit to be close to the 75.7 million dinars ($263 million) it made in the first quarter, but the cost of investments would weigh on the bottom line. [ID:nLC338579]

Zain shares rose 3.5 percent to 1.18 dinars on Tuesday. ($1=0.2876 Kuwaiti dinar) (Reporting by Rania El Gamal; Editing by John Irish, Dan Lalor and Simon Jessop)