SOTEL sold to LAP Green.(CHAD)(Brief article)

Libyan state-owned investment vehicle LAP Green Network has signed a deal to buy a 60 percent stake in fixed-line telco Societe des Telecommunications de Tchad (SOTEL) for US$90 million. LAP Green's managing director, Abdulbaset Elazzabi, said that his firm would develop Chad's mobile and fixed-line networks and planned to connect Chad to international fiber-optic cables, making broadband Internet access--both fixed and mobile--more widely available. The Libyan firm, which is owned by sovereign wealth fund the Libyan African Investment Portfolio, owns or controls telecoms operations in eight African countries.

It was reported in October that Chad had sold the 60 percent stake in SOTEL to a U.K.-based company, Mid Cost. Citing authoritative sources, the APA news agency added that the state would retain a 33 percent stake in the company while the remaining 7 percent stake would be given to employees. It is unclear why the deal with Mid Cost failed to go through.