Case against Vodacom begins in Nigeria

Johannesburg, 18 Dec 2003

The High Court in Lagos, Nigeria, has at last begun hearing the case brought by Econet Wireless International (EWI) against Vodacom SA.

The court has given Vodacom 14 days to answer the charges brought against it by EWI, with full legal arguments expected to be presented by the two companies` lawyers in early February.

Locally based EWI, a shareholder in Econet Wireless Nigeria (EWN), brought the case against Vodacom after claiming that the cellular operator induced a breach of contract when it approached EWN to buy a controlling interest in the Nigerian company.

EWI claims that it had an option to take up additional equity in EWN, to the value of $150 million, which was accepted by the board of the Nigerian operation in May this year, meaning that Vodacom`s later approach was "highly irregular".

The organisation has already submitted, at the request of the court, a statement of claim for over $1 billion in damages from Vodacom.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, EWN has failed for a fourth time in its bid to prevent the international arbitration between EWN and EWI from proceeding.

EWN is seeking a perpetual order of injunction over EWI to prevent it making any further applications to the court regarding the shareholders` dispute and preventing the international arbitration from taking place.

As was the case with the three previous applications on this matter, the Lagos High Court dismissed the application by EWN.