The Johannesburg High Court on Friday dismissed with costs an application to halt Vodacom’s R7,5-billion BEE deal, brought by a consortium that lost out, the South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported.
The Tiger consortium was told it first needed to sign on as partners the two economic empowerment entities it was claiming Vodacom allegedly tried to hijack.
This paved the way for Tiger to relaunch its application once it had satisfied the conditions set by the court.
The consortium has said Vodacom rejected its bid and then moved to acquire its two BEE affiliates.
Tiger spokesperson Jacobus van Schalkwyk told Business Day recently that its members felt they had been overlooked in the selection process and had voted to take the fight up a gear.
Tiger was among 60 bidders for shares allocated to strategic partners who could add value to the business. The strategic partners would take 45% of the empowerment shares, Vodacom’s staff would take 25% while 30% would be sold to black citizens and black business partners.
Tiger failed to impress the adjudicators and was quickly eliminated.
Vodacom spokesperson Dot Field said the company would defend the action, but she did not clarify the nature of Tiger’s objection or Vodacom’s defence, Business Day reported on Thursday. – Sapa