Serious Fraud Office Calls Off Vodafone Investigation
The UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has called off its investigation into Vodafone's shareholding in Kenya's Safaricom - citing a lack of resources for the decision. Last year, two investigators from the SFO flew out to Kenya to investigate the identity of an mysterious co-shareholder in Vodafone's Kenyan subsidiary.
The SFO told The Independent newspaper that it was refusing to investigate the company for reasons of "resources". "[The SFO director Robert Wardle] has the task of allocating resources, taking into account the prospects of success against the demands on resources. It is with some difficulty that he has decided that the SFO will not adopt this enquiry for investigation."
Kenya's government owns 60% of Safaricom, and has just started a sale which will put 25% of the company into free float - and the remaining 40% is held by Vodafone Kenya Ltd. This Kenyan registered company is 87.5 per cent owned by Vodafone group - with the remaining 12.5 per cent owned by a Guernsey-registered firm, Mobitelea.
The fraud office was getting interested as there has been confusion as to why Vodafone and the Kenyan government allowed Mobitelea to take a stake in Safaricom when the company was created, and who owns Mobitelea.
Kenya's investment watchdog is also understood to be trying to find out who is behind Mobitelea. Vodafone wont comment due to an apparent confidentiality agreement and the investment watchdog is said to be having difficulty identifying the beneficiary owner of Mobitelea. A Vodafone spokesman said last year: "Mobitelea has never had representation on the board of Vodafone Kenya or the board of Safaricom. We have received guarantees from Mobitelea that no prohibited parties have benefited from this transaction".
The matter has been further confused by the apparent disappearance of paperwork from Kenya's offices of the Registrar of Companies, which could verify the nominated directors and shareholdings in Safaricom and Vodafone Kenya Ltd.
On the web: The Independent
Posted to the site on 30th March 2008
