After appointing Ahmed Souibgui as new CEO , Sotrapil has just definitively turned the “era Adnene Belhaj Amor” page which had ended in a failure at the level of the development of the company which was entrusted by the Ministry of Industry with the management of the firm.
In a fairly expected statement, Sotrapil (Company of pipeline oil transportation), cancelled, on December 1, 2008, an investment project that the former management staff presented as that one which would double its profits. Nothing truly transparent has been officially said about the reason for this cancellation, except the fact that it is an economic one , according to a text relating to the decision taken by a ministerial council held on 28 July 2008.
However, it is obvious that these “economic reasons”, are due to a misjudgement of the company management staff as well of the design office entrusted with the project, relating to the cost of the pipeline for condensate transfer between Skhira and Menzel Hayet.
Tenders launched in connection with the implementation of the project did not go below 150 MDT, whereas the estimation set by the design office didn’t exceed 50 MDT;
No explanation had been provided, throughout this time, to shareholders, the Ministry of Industry itself behaving with shareholders and investors in the stock exchange, as if the Sotrapil was still a public company. The ministerial meeting decided to cancel the project, on July 2008, just barely a month after the general assembly where the former managing staff was still maintaining formally the pipeline project.
As we announced it , albeit belatedly regarding a ministerial decision , the Sotrapil will only buy an old pipeline, owned by a grouping including ETAP (Tunisian oil activities company), CTKP , a Tunisian-Kuwaiti oil company and a Chinese company. Again and even after concealing the first information, the Ministry of Industry and Sotrapil released nothing about the amount of this new transaction.
The company, along with its new managing staff and Sotrapil regulatory authority decided to tell a part of the truth , only 4 months later, in a communiqué convening the shareholders for an Extraordinary General Assembly to be held on 18 December 2008 in Gammarth in order to discuss an agenda that includes the annulment of decisions on the capital increase.
According to the communiqué , the extraordinary general assembly will be held to take a decision on an annulment of the decision of the Extraordinary General Meeting held on July 11, 2007 to increase the capital of the company from15,730,000 to 22,880,000 DT DT, the cancellation of the EGA decision of 13 June 2008 to increase the capital of the company from 24,024,000 to 22,880,000 DT DT and to increase the capital stock from 15,730,000 to 16,359,200 dinars DT.
The communiqué in French, released by the Tunis Stock Exchange, provides no explanation on the agenda nor does it gives any information on the Skhira project that the former managing staff presented as the rescuer of the enterprise. Nobody was upset, neither Tunis Stock Exchange nor the Financial Market Council. Who will defend savers?
