Tunisia to sell off stake portion in Tunisie Telecom to finance GO acquisition

After Tunisie Telecom confirmed its intention to proceed with a voluntary offer for the total share acquisition of Malta’s GO telecommunications company, the Tunisian government will be selling off part of its stake in Tunisie Telecom (TT) in order to finance its expansion.

According to Agence Ecofin, the Tunisian government is planning to list a portion of its 65% stake in TT on the local stock exchange.

Noomane Fehri, the minister for information technology, did not specify how much of the Tunisian government’s stake would be sold off. However, according to Agence Ecofin, the funds will be used to help drive international expansion – the acquisition of GO Malta – as well as its domestic development plans.

“Fehri explained that the state’s resources alone would be insufficient to support the telco’s plans, so the decision was taken to expand the company’s ownership,” Agence Ecofin reported.

Presently, Emirates International Telecommunications (EIT) owns 60% of GO’s shares. Since 2006, EIT also owns a 35% stake in Tunisie Telecom.

Tunisie Telecom has also offered to buy the rest of the 40% shares in GO. Private shareholders (40%) are now awaiting TT’s acquisition offer for their shares.

“Noting this latest statement by the Tunisian government, one questions whether Tunisie Telecom is backed by adequate financing,” an observer told MaltaToday.

The observer noted that, only last week, Tunisie Telecom said it intended to maintain GO’s current status as a publicly listed company with shares traded on the Malta Stock Exchange.

The observer argued that this might not only reflect the intention of certain private shareholders not to sell their share, but it may also be related to a financing issue.

“TT’s offer for GO’s share acquisition was much less than the GO’s market price on the stock exchange.”

Last week, EIT announced that it had “subject to certain conditions, irrevocably undertaken to accept the voluntary bid with respect to its shareholding” in GO.

Commenting on the voluntary bid, Nizar Bouguila, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Tunisie Telecom, said: “We are delighted to have been selected as the final preferred bidder for the acquisition of the entire share capital of GO. We are committed to becoming a long-term partner for GO, supporting continued investments in the Maltese ICT sector as well as in Cyprus through Cablenet.”