A Dubai Holding unit is battling to reinstate an initial public offering of Tunisie Telecom, in which it bought a US$2.25 billion (Dh8.26bn) stake in 2006.
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Emirates International Telecommunications (EIT), an investment company that holds a 35 per cent stake in the Tunisian telecoms company, says a planned share sale was cancelled without its approval.
EIT wants the initial public offering (IPO) to be reinstated but is being opposed by Tunisia's new government, as well as a local union.
Tunisie Telecom has been subjected to large-scale strikes in the fallout of the January uprising that toppled the country's president, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.
The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) is demanding the sale be abandoned permanently. The union also objects to the employment of about 60 of the company's 8,500 staff, whose salaries it claims are inflated and violate labour regulations.
EIT has denied union allegations that these contractual employees are overpaid, and is calling for the reinstatement of the IPO to allow Tunisie Telecom to grow.
It planned to list a 20 per cent stake on the Tunis and Paris stock exchanges in what would have been the first offering by a Tunisian company on a European bourse. Under the proposed IPO, 10 per cent of shares offered would come from the government's 65 per cent stake, and 10 per cent from EIT's holding.
But UGTT opposes any moves that could lead to the privatisation of the company and possible job losses that could follow. The union told The National that, were Tunisie Telecom to be privatised, extensive layoffs would follow.
The IPO was initially suspended because of the political situation in Tunisia, and protests over what was perceived as a privatisation of the company.
But in a meeting of company, government and union officials held on February 9, it was decided the IPO, along with "all privatisation initiatives", would be permanently cancelled. At the meeting there was also a call for a freeze of the employment of staff whose "salaries are higher than normal ones under [Tunisie Telecom] regulations", according to the minutes.
Raouf Chekir, the former chief executive of Tunisie Telecom, signed the minutes of the meeting, which was also attended by representatives of the telecoms ministry, the social affairs ministry and the UGTT. EIT, which holds four of the 12 board seats, said Mr Chekir had no right to sign the minutes of the meeting, to which representatives of the Dubai investment company had not been invited.
EIT is part of Dubai Holding, the conglomerate owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
Deepak Padmanabhan, the chief executive of EIT, said Mr Chekir did not have the authority to sign such a document. EIT acknowledged that Mr Chekir later retracted his approval of the document.
"In order for such a resolution to be valid it would need to be approved by a qualified majority of the board of directors consisting of representatives from the state of Tunisia and EIT," Mr Padmanabhan said.
"Tunisie Telecom has a clear corporate governance framework and decisions taken outside of this framework should not be considered legal or valid," Mr Padmanabhan added.
Mr Chekir, who assumed the office of chief executive on February 2, stepped down soon after signing the minutes of the meeting, although he retains his board position at Tunisie Telecom.
He told The Nationalhe wanted to suspend the IPO process temporarily but the unions demanded it should be scrapped. Mr Chekir said the document he signed did not constitute an agreement to cancel the IPO.
"The meeting lasted 12 hours and was in a stalemate," he said. "In the end the ministry accepted that the IPO process would be abandoned.
"I signed the minutes of the meeting because I was present at the meeting, but it was not an agreement.
"The next day I wrote to the minister explaining that the agreement between the government and the unions was not applicable to Tunisie Telecom and for Tunisie Telecom is null and void."
Mr Chekir added he resigned as chief executive after refusing a request from the secretary of state to sack the 60 higher-paid employees.
But the union disputes EIT's argument that the February 9 "agreement" is invalid because Tunisie Telecom board members were not consulted.
"We've always made agreements like this. We don't need to bring our demands to Tunisie Telecom's strategic partner, we bring them to the Tunisian state," said Mohamed Mongi Ben M'Barek, the secretary general of the General Federation of Post and Telecommunications, a branch of the UGTT.
Mr Ben M'Barek said the union considered Tunisie Telecom to be fundamentally a public company.
"We regard selling even a minority of shares on the public bourse as a step toward full privatisation," he said.
bflanagan@thenational.ae
tashby@thenational.ae
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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Stuck in a job without a pay rise? Here's what to do
Chris Greaves, the managing director of Hays Gulf Region, says those without a pay rise for an extended period must start asking questions – both of themselves and their employer.
“First, are they happy with that or do they want more?” he says. “Job-seeking is a time-consuming, frustrating and long-winded affair so are they prepared to put themselves through that rigmarole? Before they consider that, they must ask their employer what is happening.”
Most employees bring up pay rise queries at their annual performance appraisal and find out what the company has in store for them from a career perspective.
Those with no formal appraisal system, Mr Greaves says, should ask HR or their line manager for an assessment.
“You want to find out how they value your contribution and where your job could go,” he says. “You’ve got to be brave enough to ask some questions and if you don’t like the answers then you have to develop a strategy or change jobs if you are prepared to go through the job-seeking process.”
For those that do reach the salary negotiation with their current employer, Mr Greaves says there is no point in asking for less than 5 per cent.
“However, this can only really have any chance of success if you can identify where you add value to the business (preferably you can put a monetary value on it), or you can point to a sustained contribution above the call of duty or to other achievements you think your employer will value.”
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