Ivory Coast will not nationalize Libyan GreenN telecoms company, but will consolidate it into new company

By Libya Herald reporter.

Tunis, 2 July 2015:

Contrary to the news carried by a number of international and Ivorian media outlets, as well as Libya Herald, the Ivorian government will not be, after all, nationalising Libya’s LAP GreenN Cote d’Ivoir telecoms company.

It will also not be nationalising the other three telecoms companies, Ivorian Café Mobile, Lebanon’s Comium and UAE’s Warid, who had also failed to pay licence and other fees totalling about US$ 150 million.

‘‘There was no nationalisation’’, a source at LAP informed Libya Herald. ‘‘This move is part of the reorganisation of the telecom industry LAP GreenN recommended to the Ivorian Ministry of Telecommunications 18 months ago’’

‘‘We asked that the weak four players in the market are consolidated into one. This way we will have more coverage and equipment than the number three in the market’’.

‘‘Instead of paying cash to the Ivorian government that GreenN doesn’t currently have, we offered to give the government shares in the company’’.

‘‘The new merged company will offer 51 percentto an international player to invest in the company so that it can compete. This international player can be LAP GreenN if we can make funds available before the end of the year. Otherwise we will seek other investors’’.

LAP GreenN (Networks) is a subsidiary of the Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAP), which is in turn a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), Libya’s main sovereign wealth fund with investments valued at US$ 67 billion.

LAP’s investments are valued at around US$ 4 billion. [/restrict]