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Econet Wireless Claims Victory in Nigerian Court Case
Published on:
A Nigerian court has dismissed an application by Bharti Airtel to set aside an award made by an international commercial arbitration tribunal in favour of Econet Wireless.
Econet Wireless says that it is now seeking compensation of in excess of US$3 billion for damages following the sale of the Nigerian network against its wishes. The size of the actual damages has yet to be assessed by the court.
The basis of Econet's claim is that its 5 percent stake was unfairly cancelled when Zain took control, so any decision made since then without it, including the later sale to Bharti AItel is void.
An international tribunal found multiple breaches of a shareholders' agreement by both the selling shareholders and Celtel Nigeria, now Bharti Airtel Nigeria, ordering them to pay compensation to Econet.
The ruling said that the purchase of a 65% shareholding in Nigeria's second largest cell phone company, by Celtel, was violated the pre-emption rights of existing shareholder, Econet Wireless. Celtel's parent company, Zain later sold the controlling stake to Bharti Airtel. The international tribunal's award was handed down in December last year.
Tags: [econet wireless] [celtel] [Nigeria]
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