Tunisie Telecom (www.tunisietelecom.tn) has cancelled plans for a joint initial public offering on the Paris and Tunis stock exchanges after consultations with trade unions following several changes of Government in recent weeks and the resignation of the former president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
Tunisie Telecom is the incumbent telecommunication network and service provider and offers fixed, mobile and satellite telephony services and ADSL services to residential and business subscribers through five Internet Service Providers.
Tunisia’s official TAP news agency on 10 Feb quoted a company statement: “Following discussions with trade unions, Tunisie Telecom and the union have reached agreement … to cancel all procedures for listing Tunisie Telecom on the stock exchange and to halt all the privatisation programmes of Tunisie Telecom.”
Earlier in February Secretary of State for Communication Technologies Sami Zaoui said plans for the offer were suspended pending consultations. Workers at the company had been threatening industrial action, but this was dropped after the news that the listing had been cancelled.
The Tunisian Government holds 65% of the shares, with the rest held by Dubai’s TECOM Investments and Dubai Investment Group. It had aimed to be the first Tunisian company to list on NYSE Euronext Paris and on Bourse de Tunis (www.bvmt.com.tn).
In mid-December Tunisie Telecom had filed a 555-page reference document with regulators Conseil du Marché Financier in Tunis and Autorité des Marches Financiers in France.
