Econet Wireless Nigeria (EWN) has informed the Nigerian Federal High Court that its negotiations with Vodacom International to take a controlling interest in the company have been aborted.
In a sworn affidavit presented to the court, Tunde Oyewole, legal adviser to EWN, said the negotiations on the equity investment with Vodacom International Limited have been aborted as far back as December 19 2003.
EWN is arguing that it is no longer necessary for the court to grant an injunction to Econet Wireless International (EWI) to stop Vodacom from buying an interest in EWN because it has aborted all negotiations with Vodacom.
The affidavit was presented to the Nigerian High Court on Tuesday as supporting evidence in the case brought by EWI for an order of injunction. EWI has requested the injunction to restrain directors of EWN from accepting an offer from Vodacom for the acquisition of a controlling stake in the company. EWI claims it has pre-emptive rights to any shares issued.
Responding to these developments, EWI group CEO Strive Masiyiwa said: “The statements made to the court appear contradictory to those given in January this year when Vodacom publicly stated they were still in the process of conducting due diligence investigations of EWN. The public statement issued by EWN early in February also stated that negotiations were still in progress.”
“Despite this latest claim by EWN we are going to proceed with the international arbitration process on the shareholders dispute until a final determination is obtained through the courts,” Masiyiwa said.
EWI is asking an arbitration panel to enforce an agreement between itself and EWN in which the latter had undertaken to sell it additional shares to increase its stake and become a controlling shareholder.
EWI first made the urgent application for an injunction in October 2003 but the matter was stalled until last week when Justice Mustapha of the Federal High Court declared he had jurisdiction to preside over the case and ruled he would proceed with the hearing this Friday (February 20). — I-Net Bridge