Telecommunications giant, 9mobile, has stated that it has nothing to do with the N55 billion debt that its minority shareholder, Teleology Limited, owes Keystone Bank.Teleology Limited, as it was not a party to the case in court, since it was not a party to the court case.
The disclaimer was released by the company on Saturday in reaction to media reports that purportedly contained a court judgment compelling 9mobile to pay the sum of N55 billion, according to Nairametrics.
9mobile stated that the stories were “false and defamatory” in terms of how they affected 9mobile’s corporate reputation.
“The Management of 9mobile wishes to inform the concerned public and critical stakeholders that, contrary to this misleading headline, Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Limited (EMTS), trading as 9mobile was neither a party to any suit nor affected by the order said to have been made against it as an entity,” 9Mobile said in a statement.
The company claims that Keystone v. Teleology Limited was the court lawsuit that was filed and that it had nothing to do with 9Mobile. The telecom company further stated that its name was never brought up throughout the court process and questioned why it was being connected following the ruling.
“For the avoidance of doubt, no judgement was made against 9mobile and the attempt to link our corporate entity with a transaction by our minority shareholder, Teleology Nigeria Limited in its legal tussle with Keystone Bank, is false and maliciously misleading.
“9Mobile is under new ownership with a 95.5 % controlling stake in the business and has not been found liable for the action of its minority shareholder in the suit in question. Our business transformation programme has commenced and we are poised to reclaim our place in the market,” the company stated.
The reports state that Teleology Nigeria Limited was directed to pay Keystone Bank Limited the amount of N55.7 billion by a Federal High Court located in Ikoyi, Lagos.
Teleology Nigeria Limited was accused of not servicing the loan facility that was used to finance the company’s acquisition of strategic assets in Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Ltd., doing business as 9Mobile Network, in a lawsuit brought on behalf of Keystone Bank Limited by its lawyer, Bode Olanipekun, SAN.
Olanipekun pointed out that despite the bank’s offer of restructuring the loan facility, Teleology failed to meet various conditions precedent, operation conditions, transaction dynamics, as well as other conditions stated in the restructuring letter.
Olanipekun said that instead of being paid for the defendant’s debt obligations, the plaintiff got a presentation from PAC Limited that included, among other things, a debt sale and/or acquisition by Bankruptcy Remote Special Purpose Vehicle in a proposed transaction structure that resembled a conversion of the debt to equity without the defendant having to make an immediate down payment or repay the defendant’s enormous amount of outstanding debt.
After 9mobile’s loan default to banks under its previous owners, Teleology Nigeria Limited purchased the mobile phone company in 2018 through a bidding process that was headed by Barclays Africa and included 13 Nigerian banks, including GT Bank, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, and others.
With the first $50 million deposit and an additional $251 million paid to the banks that acquired the company, the acquisition process came to an end.
