{"id":13035,"date":"2012-05-21T09:59:32","date_gmt":"2012-05-21T07:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=13035"},"modified":"2012-05-22T12:53:56","modified_gmt":"2012-05-22T10:53:56","slug":"vodacom-will-fight-for-drc-asset-uys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/13035\/vodacom-will-fight-for-drc-asset-uys\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom will fight for DRC asset: Uys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vodacom Group<\/a> CEO, Pieter Uys<\/a> says that the operator is appealing a court decision in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the auction of its wireless unit on 3 June.<\/p>\n

Shares in Vodacom advanced in early trade on the JSE<\/a> on Monday, adding R1.98 or 1.98% to R101.98, having dipped below R100 amid concerns over its Congo business.<\/p>\n

The court in the DRC issued an order on 14 May to auction Vodacom\u2019s 510,000 shares in its 51% held Vodacom Congo SPRL unit, in order to enforce its January judgment that Vodacom pay Moto Mabanga\u2019s Namemco Energy a $21 million consulting fee.<\/p>\n

It said in the announcement that \u201cin the case of failure of payment of the amount due to the plaintiff,\u201d it would continue with a sale of the seized shares on 3 June.<\/p>\n

Mabanga started legal proceedings against Vodacom in 2011, seeking a $40.8 million success fee for work done during 2007 and 2008.<\/p>\n

In a conference call on Monday, Uys said: \u201cWe will not allow the 3rd of June to happen. They (the court) have set a date for the possible sale of the asset there. We still do not agree with the findings there.”<\/p>\n

Uys said that Vodacom was appealing on many levels. \u201cWe are appealing. We will not get to a situation on the 3rd of June where we will let the asset get sold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the longer term, Vodacom intends to dispose of its share in Vodacom Congo, however, Uys insists that the group will do so on its own terms.<\/p>\n

Vodacom appointed London-based NM Rothschild & Sons to guide the company through an exit strategy amid a long running dispute with fellow shareholder, Congolese Wireless Network (CWN).<\/p>\n

Uys said that there was a difference between an auction process and a more structured sale process. \u201cWe were running a more structured process, that has not concluded,\u201d Uys said, adding, however, that the process was currently on hold amid the court battle. \u201cWe have had a disruption around a company called Namemco.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group chief said that one party remained \u201cvery interested\u201d in its stake in Vodacom Congo, with one additional bidder also in the frame. \u201cThe whole thing is on hold,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Vodacom reported a 9.4% rise in revenue to R66.93 billion for the year ended March 2012, from R61.197 billion before.<\/p>\n

The group lifted operating profit to R16.617 billion, from R 13.696 billion in 2011, while headline earnings per share improved 8.1% to 709 cents.<\/p>\n

The mobile operator said that customers increased 29.9% to 47.8 million adding 11.0 million.<\/p>\n

Group service revenue was up 7.8% to R58.245 billion, while group EBITDA<\/a> grew 10.5% to R22.763 billion.<\/p>\n

Vodacom improved its total dividend per share by 54.3% to 710 cents.<\/p>\n

Related article<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vodacom lifts revenue by 9.4%<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Vodacom shares dip below R100 as Congo weighs<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vodacom Group CEO Pieter Uys says that the operator is appealing a court decision in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the auction of its wireless unit on 3 June if it is unable to settle a $21 million dispute with a consultant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,1],"tags":[26,2873,87,27,2872],"class_list":["post-13035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","category-trending","tag-headline","tag-namemco-energy","tag-pieter-uys","tag-vodacom","tag-vodacom-congo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13035"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13040,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13035\/revisions\/13040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}