Khalid Al-Omar will take over as chief executive and managing director with immediate effect, while Badr Al-Kharafi has been appointed to the board, the company said in a statement to the Saudi bourse. 

Bahrain Telecommunications Co. and Kingdom Holding Co. withdrew a joint $950 million bid for a 25 percent stake owned by Kuwait's Zain last month, while Al-Barrak also tried to put together his own consortium to buy out Zain and allow him to remain in charge.

Al-Barrak was also the former chief executive of Zain and was the architect of Zain's rapid expansion in the previous decade, when Zain claimed to be the fourth largest telecoms carrier globally, with operations in 23 countries.  

Zain has since retrenched to become a seven-license carrier, selling its African operations to India's Bharti Airtel for $9 billion in 2010, with indebted shareholder the Kharafi Group seen as the main driver for this change in strategy.  

Kharafi also failed in two attempts to sell controlling stakes in Zain, first to an Indian-led consortium and then to UAE's Etisalat. 

A condition of the proposed deal with Etisalat was for Zain to first sell its stake in Zain Saudi since Etisalat is already active in Saudi Arabia through its affiliate Mobily.