Foreign companies face Arab spring fallout - FT.com

When France Telecom announced the launch of Orange Tunisie last year, it said it was “proud to associate itself with Marwan Mabrouk” to build Tunisia’s first convergent telecoms operator, whereby different services are channelled into one network.

Sixteen months later, Mr Mabrouk, the son-in-law of ousted leader Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali, has had his 51 per cent stake in Orange Tunisia confiscated by Tunisia’s interim authorities, which are investigating the circumstances in which Mr Mabrouk’s stake in Orange Tunisie was acquired.

It is a position many international companies have unwittingly found themselves in, as transitional governments in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya review myriad foreign investments with links to former members of deposed corrupt and autocratic regimes.

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