Nomura has lowered its price targets for regional telecoms firms Etisalat and Zain, following the breakdown in the UAE company's $12 billion bid for the Kuwaiti operator. The firm reduced its share-price target for Etisalat to Dh12.1 from Dh13.6. "[The] failure to cement Zain bid, increasing domestic pressures domestically and problems in India all weigh on [the] investment case," it said. It also reduced its price target for Zain to 1.04 Kuwaiti dinars from 1.22. It attributed this to a special dividend paid by the company, adding that the business is "self sustaining but [its] strategic direction [is] unclear." Nomura also said it has reduced its profit forecasts for Etisalat and regional operators Mobinil and Zain KSA, which is part-owned by Zain. "The main downgrades are Etisalat, where we have reduced our longer-term margin assumptions for the core domestic operations as a result of growing regulatory pressures and success from Du and Zain KSA, where visibility over the restructuring remains low and the company has downgraded its guidance for 2011," Nomura said in a note. Nomura's report on the telecoms industry in the emerging markets also found that Middle East operators stand to grow from the growth in data services. "Both the Middle East and African markets should, in our view, be able to create strong value accretion from growth in data," it said.