May 17 2006 |
more articles from
|
Twenty-five companies show interest in Somathes
Twenty-five companies, seven of them Chinese, have showed interest in buying the Moroccan Society for Tea and Sugar (Somathes).Last month, the Ministry of Finance resumed the process of privatising public companies, launching a tender operation to cede the government's share in the capital of Somathes.
Seven Chinese companies expressed their interest in bidding for the state-owned company. China is the largest supplier to Somathes.
"Among the 25 companies which expressed interest in acquiring Societe Marocaine du The et du Sucre are seven Chinese firms, several leading Moroccan food enterprises and a big Indian company," one top government official told Reuters.
Indian Tata Tea is also among the bidders, said Reuters quoting the same source.
July 16, 2006 is the deadline for bidders to submit their offers for Somathes.
Available figures showed that the company posted a turnover of MAD 290.5 million in 2004, up from MAD 268.6 million the previous year.
Moroccan companies Aiguebelle, Cosumar , Societe Groupe Bellakhdar, Etablissement Belfkih & Fils and Holmarcom group are also among the bidders.
"The competition is expected to be fierce for the purchase of Somathes and we are optimistic the price will come higher than the initial bidding price due to the quality and the number of interested firms in the offer," a source close to the tender told Reuters.
Besides this operation, the 2006 privatization programme includes opening the capital of the Banque Centrale Populaire, ceding 20% of Régie des Tabacs's capital, and the whole or part of Comanav.
This year's operations are a continuum of the privatisation programme launched in the early 90s of the last century. By 2005, up to 70 entities (44 companies and 26 hotels) had been privatised, either totally or partially.
These operations gained the state about MAD 77 billion, 81.8% of which (that is MAD 63 billion) were paid by foreign investors and the rest by Moroccans.
A total of 75.17% of purchasers are French investors, followed by Moroccans (18.20%), Spaniards (9.39%) and Saudis (5.49%).
The Ministry of Finance and Privatization said that these investors honored most of their contractual commitments.
"Among the 70 entities privatized, only one case (SIMEF) required the intervention of the state, nullifying the contract. And SAMIR's commitments will be realized as part of the investment convention signed in 2004 (MAD 6 million) between the state and SAMIR," said the ministry in a report on privatization in Morocco.
The report added however that "three hotels (Doukkala, Madayeq and Transatlantique) face some difficulties."
Zawya Comment Policy
-
Zawya encourages you to add a comment to this discussion. You agree that when you add content to this discussion your comments will not:
1.1 Contain any material which is libelous or defamatory of any person, is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or causes damage to the reputation of any person or organisation.
1.2 Promote sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age or any illegal activity.
1.3 Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
1.4 Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
1.5 Be used to impersonate any person, to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person, or be likely to deceive any person.
1.6 Give the impression that they represent Zawya.
1.7 Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse. - The content posted on www.zawya.com is created by members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of Zawya. Zawya reserves the right to review all comments prior to posting and edit or delete any contribution, but Zawya is not responsible for and can not be held liable for any content posted by members of the public on www.zawya.com.
- Zawya is not responsible for the availability or content of any third party sites that are accessible through www.zawya.com. Any links to third party websites from www.zawya.com do not amount to any endorsement of that site by Zawya and any use of that site by you is at your own risk.
- By submitting your comment, you hereby give Zawya the right, but not the obligation, to post, air, edit, exhibit, telecast, webcast, re-use, publish, reproduce, use, license, print, distribute or otherwise use your comments worldwide, in perpetuity.
Copyright © 2012 Zawya Ltd. All rights reserved. |
provided by www.zawya.com |
Post Your Comment