CAIRO: An International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration tribunal ruled that the Kuwaiti telecom company Wataniya was not obligated to hand over its fifty percent stake of the Tunisiana network in Tunisia to its partner Orascom Telecom (OT). A dispute between the two companies over the appointment of the mobile operator s chairman led to Orascom requesting that Wataniya relinquish its stake because it was in breach of contract. Qatar Telecommunications Co (Qtel), which owns 51 percent of Wataniya, released a statement that the tribunal did concur that although Wataniya did not respect the right to propose the appointment of Tunisiana s board chairman, this breach itself was not sufficient to require Wataniya to transfer its 50 percent shareholding to Orascom, who demanded that they carry out this transfer. A market source told Daily News Egypt that the ruling had no impact on the OT share price in the local market, with the price closing at LE 84, an increase of 1.49 percent. The price hike was due to Orascom's discussion with French media conglomerate Vivendi regarding a telecom tie-up. However, French paper Les Echos reported on the possible partnership that the two sides could not reach an agreement over the price or the valuation of Vivendi s assets, claiming Orascom wanted to make a straight swap. Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani, chairman of both Qtel and Wataniya said, We are delighted that the arbitrators have issued a binding opinion that puts this issue behind us and allows Wataniya Telecom to work constructively with Orascom to strengthen Tunisiana s position as Tunisia s mobile operator of choice. The ICC decision is binding, with Al Thani saying, When Qtel purchased Wataniya Telecom from KIPCO in March 2007, it inherited an ongoing arbitration regarding the shareholders agreement between Orascom and Wataniya in Tunisiana, our 50/50 mobile joint venture in Tunisia. Tunisiana was created in 2002, and was the second mobile operator in Tunisia, breaking the monopoly of Tunisie and now has a market share of 45.9 percent, up from 43.8 percent the previous year. Tunisiana earned revenues of $461 million in 2006, and have increased their customer base by 400,000 subscribers from 3.1 to 3.5 million in the last year. Mobile penetration in Tunisia is 73 percent from a population of 10.2 million.
