The Federal High Court of Nigeria has dismissed mobile operator Bharti Airtel’s application for a stay preventing the implementation of an earlier decision made by the court in favour of Econet Wireless.
Bharti sought the stay to prevent Econet Wireless from enforcing its rights pending Bharti’s appeal of a landmark ruling handed down in January 2012. In the earlier judgment, the court ruled that Econet Wireless was the beneficial owner of a 5% shareholding in Econet Wireless Nigeria (EWNL) and its share certificates should be re-issued.
The court said as a shareholder, Econet Wireless had a right to participate in all decisions which required shareholder approval and consequently all resolutions passed since October 2003 by shareholder agreement in which Econet was not invited to participate were null and void and should be reversed.
The change to the name of the company to Bharti Airtel Nigeria was irregular, null and void and should be reversed to rename the company EWNL.
Econet Wireless will seek to implement the ruling without delay and continue its work to ensure its rights under the law are upheld.
In a separate dispute relating to the Nigerian company, the High Court in Lagos has set the date of June 4 to hear another injunction application by Bharti Airtel which has been filed and seeks to prevent an international arbitral process from assessing the amount of equitable compensation and damages due to Econet Wireless.
This arbitral process, established under UNCITRAL, has determined that Econet Wireless was prevented from exercising its right of pre-emption when 65% of the shares in EWNL were sold to Zain which was subsequently acquired by Bharti.
In its submission to the Lagos High Court, Econet Wireless has said it will be submitting a claim to the tribunal for equitable compensation and damages of $3,1 billion.
