Algeria’s richest man Issad Rebrab moves to shut down French-speaking press company, Liberte

Issad Rebrab, an Algerian billionaire and leading businessman, has announced his intention to close one of the flagship French-speaking independent press companies, Liberte, due to financial difficulties that have engulfed the firm’s operations since the outbreak of the pandemic.

SAEC-Liberte, a company that operates as the publishing company for the French-speaking independent daily, owns 100 percent of Liberte.

To facilitate the closure of Liberte, Rebrab, the majority shareholder of the newspaper SAEC-Liberte, announced his intention to hold a general meeting on April 6, with the agenda being the filing of bankruptcy and the simple dissolution of the title.

Malik Rebrab, the general manager of Cevital Group and the billionaire’s son, went to the newspaper’s headquarters to confirm his father’s decision to record the title’s dissolution, citing an “irreversible decision.”

The decision to close the company did not go unnoticed, as the editorial staff of the press company and other key members expressed their dissatisfaction with the move, and also planned out collective strategies to persuade the businessman to reverse this unexpected decision.

The newspaper’s collective stated that the unexpected decision comes at a time when the newspaper has initiated a series of measures to improve the company’s financial situation.

The staff believes that, despite the fact that the press company is having financial difficulties as a result of the shortfall caused by the health crisis, the firm has been rebalancing its accounts for a few months and has plans in place to return to profit by the end of the year.

The National Union of Algerian Journalists questioned the decision and urged businessman Issad Rebrab not to “perform the fatal act,” as Liberte has promoted the values of progress, modernity, and the defense of citizens’ and the country’s interests over its thirty-year history.

Rebrab, Algeria’s richest man, founded and owns Cevital, the country’s leading private group. The majority of the billionaire businessman’s $5.1-billion fortune stems from his stake in Cevital.

In recent times, Cevital has been faced with a considerable drop in its export revenues since Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune placed a ban on the export of mass consumption food products locally processed with raw materials.

As a result of the ban, Cevital, was forced to shut down the production lines of its refinery in the port of Bejaa and lay off 800 workers.