The logo of the company LibanPost. (Credit: Twitter/LibanPost)
BEIRUT — LibanPost's shareholders decided on Thursday to withdraw from a Telecoms Ministry tender to handle postal services, leaving no more candidates for the tender and putting the country's ability to run such services on the line.
LibanPost will nevertheless continue to provide its services, likely by downsizing, until a replacement is found. Its contract, which has been renewed regularly since late 2019, is due to expire at the end of May.
The company's management announced the news to employees in an email on Wednesday evening, the day before the deadline for applications set by the Telecoms Ministry, a source within LibanPost told L'Orient-Le Jour on condition of anonymity.
The tender was launched in October, with an initial deadline of Jan. 24 before caretaker Telecoms Minister Johnny Corm, extended it.
Only two candidates had applied to the tender: LibanPost SAL, which is owned by the Saradar group, and the CMA CGM group, the French transport giant owned by the Saadé family. CMA CGM finally announced on Jan. 11 that it was not interested in the public contract, just after publicly denying reports that a "deal" had been reached behind the scenes to win it.
While the Telecoms Ministry is expected to announce the number of candidates for the tender Thursday morning, a source at the government's Central Inspection told L’Orient-Le Jour that there were none.
"Given the bad economic situation, it must be assumed that the contract is not interesting or secure enough to convince investors to commit to a long-term partnership with the Lebanese authorities," said the source, who requested anonymity.
Given the lack of results, the ministry has only two choices: either to propose the renewal of LibanPost's contract or to launch another tender, which could take several months.
Moreover, the name of the businessman and former son-in-law of Nabih Berri, Wissam Achour, was circulating as a potential candidate a few hours before the announcement of the Ministry's tender results. L’Orient Le-Jour was not able to confirm this information.
