{"id":8209,"date":"2012-02-22T14:24:46","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T12:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/econet-seeks-3-1-billion-damages-from-bharti-airtel\/"},"modified":"2012-02-22T14:24:46","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T12:24:46","slug":"econet-seeks-3-1-billion-damages-from-bharti-airtel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/econet-seeks-3-1-billion-damages-from-bharti-airtel\/","title":{"rendered":"Econet seeks $3.1 billion damages from Bharti Airtel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Tim Cocks<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LAGOS<\/span> Feb 22 (Reuters) – Econet Wireless is seeking
\nat least $3.1 billion in damages from Bharti Airtel in
\na dispute over ownership of its subsidiary Airtel Nigeria,
\naccording to a suit filed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The move follows a Nigerian court ruling on Jan. 30 that
\nBharti Airtel’s ownership of its subsidiary Airtel Nigeria is
\n“null and void” because co-founder and 5 percent shareholder
\nEconet was not consulted on the transfer.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa-based Econet Wireless is disputing the Indian
\ncompany’s ownership of one of its top Africa operations.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Bharti said last month that its stake in its Nigerian unit
\nwas “completely safe” and that the world’s fifth-biggest mobile
\nphone carrier by subscribers had appealed against the verdict.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The claim for damages and equitable compensation against
\nthe Applicant and some of the Respondents might be in excess of
\n$3 Billion,” the document filed to the court said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The above estimated damages might also be in addition to a
\nclaim for $100 Million received by the Applicant as fees for the
\nmanagement of VNL (Vee Networks Limited, a former name of
\nAirtel) for a period of 6 years which sum should have accrued.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Bharti Airtel inherited the legal case as part of a $9
\nbillion acquisition of Zain’s Africa operations in 2010,
\nincluding 65 percent of Zain Nigeria.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The basis of Econet’s claim is that its 5 percent stake was
\nunfairly cancelled when Zain took control, so any decision made
\nsince then without it, including the transfer to Bharti, is
\nvoid. The Nigerian court upheld that claim.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Nigeria contributes about 9.5 percent to Bharti’s
\nconsolidated operational profits, the company says.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Econet disputed the buyout of Airtel’s stake from Zain
\nNigeria in 2010 because its right of first refusal over the
\nstake was denied, in a dispute that had been ongoing since 2003,
\nwhen the same assets were first sold to Vee Networks. \t<\/p>\n

(Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Cocks LAGOS Feb 22 (Reuters) – Econet Wireless is seeking at least $3.1 billion in damages from Bharti Airtel in a dispute over ownership of its subsidiary Airtel Nigeria, according to a suit filed on Wednesday. The move follows a Nigerian court ruling on Jan. 30 that Bharti Airtel’s ownership of its subsidiary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-8209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}