...Govt Paid Telekom Malaysia $100m
Telekom Malaysia(TM) has completed the sale of its 30 percent interest in Ghana Telecom. The government of Ghana(GoG), which holds the remaining 70 percent of the company is now the sole owner.
According to a source familiar with the case, after an arbitration settlement, GoG agreed to pay $100 million to TM and its minority Ghanaian partners, G-Com, to buy back their 30% stake in GT, which they paid $38 million for November 1996. Half of the amount was paid sometime last year and the rest paid of last week.
In a statement on April 20, TM said: The company received the settlement sum due to it by the GoG for the transfer of its 30% stake in Ghana Telecommunications Company Ltd (GT). The settlement sum was fully paid in accordance with the terms of the settlement documents executed by the parties involved.
TM had previously announced that the fair market value of the 30% stake in GT, was US$52.2 million, as determined by an independent expert valuer.
TM said with the completion of the settlement payment and the fulfilment of other applicable conditions, the ownership of the 30% stake in GT would be transferred to GoG.
Since 2003, the government of Ghana has been locked in a bitter dispute with TM.
In 1997 the state sold a 30% stake in GT to the G-Com consortium, in which Telekom Malaysia (TM) holds an 85% stake, for USD38 million. TM was given a five year management contract to run the company for the duration of GT's fixed line duopoly with new entrant Westel. By the time of the contract's expiration TM presided over a poorly configured network, with just 275,000 fixed lines in service, well short of its mandated 400,000.
The new government declined to renew TM's deal and put the management of the company out to tender. Relations between the state and TM deteriorated to the point where the Malaysian company attempted to sell its stake back to the government and to recover the deposit it had paid for the holding, as well as a significant amount in damages for what it terms 'unfair treatment'.
The government said that once the dispute was resolved it would buy back TM's stake and float it on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
