Libyan operator LAP Green Networks plans to rebrand all its pan African networks under the GreeN brand, includig Rwandatel.
LAP Green, currently present in six African countries, including Rwanda, announced on its website that the group’s African networks would be rebranded to GreeN, this according to Rwanda’s The New Times publication.
According to Rwandatel’s CEO, Issiaka Maiga Hamidou, LAP wants to localize the brand name, as other operators do.
“Operating under one big brand will help all the operators to have the same vision which will also help the financial investments directed through one channel as LAP is moving towards becoming a big player on the continent”, said Hamidou.
LAP already has more than 4 million subscribers and plans to grow its subscriber base by 2012, focusing on fixed and mobile phones, as well as Internet services.
LAP Green is a subsidiary of Libya African Investments Portfolio (LAP), an investment arm of the Libyan Government. The company has a controlling stake in Rwandatel and Uganda’s UTL.
Last year, LAP Green invested $97.4 million in Rwandatel.
The group also holds majority shares in Sonitel, Sahelcom and Ambitel GreenN of Niger, Cote d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone respectively and recently bought 80% of Gemtel, a Southern Sudan operator.
It plans to expand aggressively by acquiring stakes in five other African countries and launching operations in Togo and Sierra Leone. In 2009, LAP Green signed a $300 million financing agreement with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), to fuel its plans of expansion.
