GO plc has selected La Société Nationale des Télécommunications (Tunisie Telecom) as the final preferred bidder for the sale of the entire issued share capital of the company.

Tunisie Telecom will be submitting a voluntary bid in terms of the Listing Rules for the entire issued share capital of the Company at a price of €2.87 per share.

The issued share capital of the company is €58,997,453.51 divided into 101,310,488 ordinary shares, of which Tecom Investments (Dubai) holds 60%.

Times of Malta had reported exclusively earlier this month that two final bids were submitted to GO: by Batelco – Bahrain Telecoms Corporation – and by Tunisie Telecom, which is Tunisia’s largest telecommunications company. In both cases, the government of those countries controls a majority shareholding.

Both Batelco and Tunisie Telecoms are the main providers in their countries for fixed, mobile and internet services.

Tunisie Telecom, which was established in 1996, has a subscriber base of six million clients in Tunisia alone and employs some 8,000 people.

The company currently already has a connection with Go, as they share a same shareholder. In 2006, Tecom Investments  bought a 35 per cent stake in the Tunisian company.  

Before the move, GO hived off its property portfolio, worth more than €50 million, into a separate company.