Tunisie Telecom IPO in doubt

State-owned telecoms operator Tunisie Telecom (TT) may not be able to go ahead with an investor roadshow for its planned listing in Paris and Tunis due to the unstable political situation in the country, according to Reuters Africa. TT had been expected to hold investor meetings in London, Paris and Switzerland in the coming week. ‘The state of emergency and departure of the president will clearly delay the Tunisie Telecom IPO,’ said Daniel Broby, chief investment officer at Silk Invest. ‘The advisers to the IPO will, in our opinion, have to err on the side of caution and delay to the second quarter or beyond.’ As it stands, Tunisia’s government holds a 65% stake of TT, with the rest held jointly by Dubai’s TECOM Investments and Dubai Investment Group (DIG). According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, the Tunisian state is expected to contribute 10% of the company’s shares for the listing, while a further 10% would come from the company’s Arab shareholders.