Tunisie Telecom's IPO was delayed due to the ongoing political instability in the country. The political tension in Tunisia may prevent state-owned Tunisie Telecom from attracting the required investors in its initial public offering, which was to be launched in the stock markets of Paris and Tunis. Meetings with investors were planned to take place next week in London, Paris, and Switzerland, according to Reuters. The Tunisian government owns a 65 per cent stake in the company, while Dubai's TECOM Investments and Dubai Holding own the rest. "The state of emergency and departure of the president will clearly delay the Tunisie Telecom IPO," Daniel Broby, the investment manager in Silk Invest told Reuters. "The advisors to the IPO will, in our opinion, have to err on the side of caution and delay to the second quarter or beyond," Broby added. The global director of the IPO is Credit Suisse, along with several Tunisian brokerage companies. The Tunisian company's shares were scheduled to be introduced in the European stock exchanges, and the company said last month that it has submitted documents to the stock exchange regulators in Paris and Tunis, according to Beltone Financials. The documents for the planned IPOs have already been registered, completing the first stage of the company's listing process in both cities. Tunisie Telecom is a telecommunications operator, offering mobiles and internet services. It was founded in 1995 and is based in Tunis, Tunisia. "This will be the first telecom listing in Tunisia," Beltone Financials commented. The other two big telecom companies active in the Tunisian market, Tunisiana (until recently co-owned by Qtel and Orascom Telecom) and newcomer Orange (owned by France Telecom) are not yet listed. Qtel's Wataniya listing will be the second listing, as the company declared last week that it plans public listing for both its Tunisian and Iraqi units. The company recently increased its stake in Tunisiana from 50 per cent to 100 per cent, after buying Orascom's share.
