Hello guys, I’m sure you have been expecting good news about the 9mobile acquisition, as we earlier brought to you that the NCC Executive Commissioner and Stakeholder Management insisted that the transactions and handover of 9mobile to the new owner must be finally concluded on the 16th of January, 2018.
Unfortunately,no winner has emerged yet and the date was not postponed, what we heard is that ever since the date fixed for the acquisition of 9mobile, there has been some war happening underground. However, the Federal High Court in Lagos at Ikoyi has nullified the Ex Parte order that was earlier issued on the 3rd of July 2017 approving the appointment of an “Interim Board” for the fourth largest telecommunications service operator in Nigeria, EMTS (Etisalat), now known as 9mobile. The Interim Board of EMTS is backed by CBN and NCC, recently received bids from about 5 bidders in its intended sale of 9mobile and Barclays Africa is the financial adviser handling the sale of 9mobile. Meanwhile, Solicitor to Spectrum Wireless Communication Limited in a public notice warned that by virtue of the said judgment, Funke Ighodaro, Dr. Joseph Nnanna, Oluseyi Bickersteth, Ken Igbokwe and Boye Olusanya as security trustee nominee of the board of Emerging Markets Telecommunications Service (EMTs) has been nullified and the order appointing them vacated. The Solicitor warns that any company or institution who transacts business for the purpose of sale or acquisition of EMTS or 9mobile does so at his/her risk. Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos, in his judgment, said the motion is struck out having set aside the order adding that “the respondent shall reverse all steps taken by it since the order was nullity.” See the Documents that show the order by Justice Ibrahim Buba followed by the Preliminary Objection filed by United Capital Trustees LTD in response to the application of Spectrum Wireless, a shareholder of EMTS, for a nullification of the Ex Parte Order. See photos of the document below:
The development has set off another round of confusion and has already affected theJanuary 16 deadline set by the NCC last week. What’s your say?
