Wednesday, Jun 09, 2010
MUMBAI (Dow Jones)--South African telecom company Econet Wireless Holdings Ltd. (ECONET.ZB), a shareholder in Zain Nigeria--an asset that was sold to India's Bharti Airtel Ltd. (532454.BY) by Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co. (ZAIN.KW)--, said a dispute over ownership of the Nigerian firm hasn't yet been resolved.
Econet's comments came after Bharti Airtel said Tuesday it has completed its $9 billion acquisition of the assets of Zain in 15 countries in Africa, excluding Morocco and Sudan.
But Econet says a long-standing legal dispute must be settled before the ownership of Zain Nigeria can change.
"Econet isn't party to any agreement between Bharti Airtel and Zain. Econet will continue to work to see its substantive rights upheld," the South African company said in a statement issued late Tuesday.
It is attempting to overturn a 2006 deal in which Celtel--the name was subsequently changed to Zain--bought a controlling 65% of the Nigeria business that had been founded at the beginning of the decade by a group of government, institutional and private investors.
Bharti said Tuesday it hasn't had any contact with Econet. "We are fully indemnified for anything that comes out of the court cases (in Nigeria)," Bharti Chairman Sunil Mittal said.
Officials at India's largest mobile phone operator by subscriber base couldn't immediately be reached for comment on Econet's latest remarks.
But Bharti did say it has resolved another similar dispute with Broad Communications Ltd., which owns a 14% stake in Zain Nigeria. The settlement will see Broad withdraw all legal cases.
-By R. Jai Krishna and Romit Guha, Dow Jones Newswires; +91-9967586928; romit.guha@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
09-06-10 0422GMT
