Muhammad al-Houthi and Abu Ali al-Hakem seek to control Y Telecom after it was declared bankrupt
English - Sunday 22 March 2020 الساعة 04:40 pm
Sanaa, Newsyemen, Private:
Sources in the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in the capital, Sana'a, which is under the control of the Houthi militias, revealed that Houthi leaders are seeking to take over the mobile telecommunications company (Y) after declaring it bankrupt.
The sources said that the leader of the Houthi militia, Muhammad Ali al-Houthi, along with other leaders, most notably Abu Ali al-Hakem, are leading efforts aimed at seizing the company under the justification of its purchase after it was declared bankrupt.
A commercial court subject to the control of the Houthi militias in Sanaa announced in an official announcement in Al-Thawra newspaper published on Wednesday March 11, 2020 the bankruptcy of the mobile company "Y" in Yemen, one of the three GSM companies in Yemen.
According to the sources, the speedy declaration of the bankruptcy of the company came to stop attempts to transfer the equipment and capabilities of the central company from Sanaa to one of the southern governorates, in coordination between officials of the company and Saudi investors, including a relative of the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Muhammad Al Jaber, noting that the engineers of the company were trying to decipher the main servers of the company is in Sanaa, but the National Security personnel of the Houthi militia stopped them and arrested them, before they were quickly ruled to announce the judicial ruling that the company was bankrupt.
The sources confirm that the leader and member of the Supreme Political Council for the Militia, Muhammad Ali al-Houthi, raised in one of the meetings that included communications officials and some officials who were working in the company, the need to obtain what he called the right of pre-emption to buy and acquire the company, especially after its bankruptcy was declared, noting that Al-Houthi had a great role in speeding up the issuance of the ruling by declaring the company bankruptcy in order to create requirements for its acquisition at the lowest price.
According to the sources in the Ministry of Communications, if Muhammad Ali Al Houthi was able to acquire the Way Company, he would be able to restart it using the assistance of the Ministry of Communications, which is controlled by the militia on the one hand, and take advantage of the capabilities that the company owned on the other hand, and cut the road to the company’s ability to Starting work in the southern governorates in light of its lack of information, data and key equipment through which the company was managed from its headquarters in Sana'a.
The sources add that, since its control of the capital Sana'a and state institutions, Houthi militias are seeking not only to control telecommunications companies, but also to own their own telecommunications company through which they achieve the goal of financial investment and political and security use in their favor, especially since the militias have previously sought to establish a 4G company, but these endeavors failed due to the insistence of the Ministry of Communications and the House of Representatives that the new company place an insurance amount of $ 300 million in the state’s public treasury account and under the supervision of the Ministry of Communications until it obtains a construction permit, which was rejected by the militias at the time.
It is worth noting that the company "Y" for mobile phone is the fourth telecommunications company established in Yemen and the third private company operating the GSM system in Yemen, but it did not succeed in the ability to compete with the last two companies, MTN and SabaFon, and its spread remained limited until the war and its situation forced it to close and lay off its employees before they are declared bankrupt by a court ruling from a court subject to the control of the Houthi militias.
