LAP Green Network, the telecoms holding company owned by the Libyan African Portfolio (LAP), has relocated its corporate headquarters to Dubai, UAE, it has confirmed. The company, which saw its pan-African expansion ambitions derailed by the fall of the Gaddafi regime and the imposition of United Nations (UN) sanctions, has struggled to reassert itself in recent years, but the establishment of a new headquarters seems likely to usher in a new era for LAP Green.
As things stand, LAP Green has fully operational subsidiaries in Uganda (Uganda Telecom Ltd [UTL]), Cote d’Ivoire (GreenN Cote d’Ivoire) and Gemtel (South Sudan), while Ambitel is gearing up to launch in Sierra Leone. However, its investments in Zambia, Chad, Niger, Rwanda and Togo were all seized following the imposition of UN sanctions in 2011, putting a massive dent in its operational footprint.
Going forward, 2014 has seen LAP Green linked with approaches for both Orange Uganda and SOTEL in Chad, although no concrete progress has been confirmed by either party. TeleGeography notes that LAP Green had previously designated Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea as markets in which its pursuit of mobile licences was said to be ‘ongoing’.