RABAT, March 27 (Reuters) – The Moroccan government should not subscribe to a planned capital increase by Maroc Telecom because it can not afford it considering the state of public finances, the head of the country’s central bank said on Tuesday.
Maroc Telecom said on Monday it would ask a shareholders’ assembly to vote on April 24 for a management’s proposal to raise its capital by up to 200 million shares, or as much as 22.7 percent.
Vivendi holds a 53 percent stake in Maroc Telecom and the Moroccan government has 30 percent.
Abdellatif Jouahri, governor of Morocco’s central bank, said it would be “illogical” for the government to subscribe to the capital hike.
“It’s not logical since the state has in recent years been reducing its share ownership in the company … Plus, how can the state find say 3 billion dirhams for this increase,” he told reporters.
Jouahri urged the government to rein in expenditure, especially for subsidies and public wages, after the state’s budget deficit surged in 2011 to 7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), its highest since the 1990s.
The government has started to reduce its stake in the former state telecom monopoly around a decade ago under a privatization programme.
Maroc Telecom has not said at how much its plans to sell the new shares although market sources say these would be offered at a discount of 25 percent compared to the stock’s price. (Reporting By Souhail Karam; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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