Members of the Tunisian parliament have called for an official inquiry into the acquisition of Malta’s telecommunications company GO by Tunisie Telecom, Times of Malta has been told.
Following a grilling of TT’s CEO, Nizar Bouguila, by the Tunisian parliament’s commission on good governance and the fight against corruption, Opposition MPs said that they were not satisfied with the deal and wanted the government to look into it.
Speaking to the Times of Malta from Tunis, MP Ghazi Chouachi said the news that TT was acquiring GO Malta took everyone in the Tunisian telecommunications industry by surprise, particularly due to the bad financial state of the company.
TT lost more than €30 million last year and has not been in good shape for a number of years
“TT lost more than €30 million last year and has not been in good shape for a number of years. Until a few months ago, there were no plans for further investment but only for radical restructuring,” Mr Chouachi said. “We really cannot understand what is behind this sudden decision, although we have our suspicions,” the MP from the Democratic Current party said.
Asked whether MPs suspected corruption, Mr Chouachi said Opposition parties were not excluding anything.
“What is certain is that the private shareholders of TT are also the majority shareholders of GO Malta. This alone raises a lot of suspicion that the deal is only being done in the interest of Dubai’s Emirates International Telecommunications,” he said.
This newspaper is informed that the main Opposition parties in Parliament, which apart from the Democratic Current include the Ennahda Movement, the second largest party in Tunisia, and the Congress of the Republic Party, are also considering taking legal action against the government if it persists in concluding the deal.
The Tunisian government is the majority shareholder in TT, and EIT holds a 35 per cent stake. EIT has been trying to sell their shares in the company since 2013.
EIT owns 60 per cent of GO Malta, with the rest of the shares held by about 8,000 individual Maltese shareholders.
Although, according to TT’s offer, the Tunisian telecoms company is bidding to buy 100 per cent of GO’s shares for about €300 million, Mr Bouguila told Tunisian deputies that the company intended to acquire only about 70 per cent of GO Malta.
Both TT and EIT have denied any conflict of interest in the deal.
EIT said that despite the fact that GO Malta’s chairman, Deepak Padmanabhan, also sat on TT’s board, he abstained from participating and voting in all TT board and shareholder meetings on all matters concerning the project.
The Ennahda Movement MP Sahbi Atik told Parliament EIT was surely the main instigator in the deal.
Last year, before EIT announced that GO Malta was for sale, it had concluded a spin off of all the property owned by GO into a new company, Malta Properties Company plc. This ensured that GO’s most lucrative assets were kept in the new set-up.
Apart from TT, Bahrain’s Batelco also made a bid for GO. However, after only a week the company had announced it was no longer interested.
The deal is being scrutinised by the Malta Communications Authority, which has yet to make a decision.
The Malta Financial Services Authority has so far failed to reply to questions on the GO acquisition.
TT is offering the Maltese shareholders €2.87 per share. GO had been trading at €3.45 per share when it announced it had decided to sell its shares to TT.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com