A court in Nigeria has dismissed an application by Bharti Airtel to set aside an award made by an international commercial arbitration tribunal in favour of Econet Wireless.

Econet Wireless says that it is now going to seek compensation in excess of US$3 billion for damages following the sale of the Nigerian mobile network against its wishes. The size of the actual damages has yet to be assessed by the court.

The basis of Econet’s claim is that its five per cent stake was unfairly cancelled when Zain Group took control, so any decision made since then without it, including the later sale to Bharti Airtel is void.

An international tribunal found multiple breaches of a shareholders’ agreement by both the selling shareholders and Celtel Nigeria, now Bharti Airtel Nigeria, ordering them to pay compensation to Econet.

The ruling said that the purchase of a 65 per cent shareholding in Nigeria’s second largest mobile operator, by Celtel, violated the pre-emption rights of existing shareholder, Econet Wireless. Celtel’s parent company, Zain Group later sold the controlling stake to Bharti Airtel. The international tribunal’s award was handed down in December.

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has sold its IPTV business to Accenture, the latest in a line of divestures designed to concentrate the vendor’s focus on the mobile broadband space.

Accenture is to integrate the business with its own Accenture Video Solution – a software product and a suite of services that enables companies to launch over-the-top TV and services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
In the past year, NSN has sold its WiMAX unit to NewNet Communication Technologies, its Expedience fixed-wireless broadband business to CN Tetragen, its fixed line broadband access unit to Adtran and microwave transport business to DragonWave.

It is also thought to be close to finalising a sale of its business support systems (BSS) division, with Ericsson and Amdocs said to be among the interested acquirers.

Zain Saudi Arabia has secured an agreement to delay the repayment of a US$2.6 billion loan by a further two months while it raises the funds for the repayment.

The company has already delayed repayment from July to the end of September, but has now secured an agreement to delay repayment until the end of November.

The company has already paid back US$750 million of the debt, and recently raised US$1.6 billion in a rights issue from shareholders.

Zain Group owns a 37 per cent stake in the company and failed in an attempt last year to sell its holding to Bahrain’s Batelco.

Zain announced today that it has selected Ericsson to upgrade its network with the technology supplier’s network core switch technology and charging system solutions, paving the way for the quick and cost-effective future introduction of new services such as 4G/LTE.

The five-year contract also includes charging solutions and related services.

UAE-based regional MVNO, Friendi Group today announced that following the recent legal completion of the regional partnership between Friendi and Virgin Group, the company has changed its name to Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa (VMMEA).

The renamed group will manage the local operating companies of Friendi Group and Virgin in Oman, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, and with more than 1 million customers and above US$150 million in annualised revenue, VMMEA is the leader in the regional MVNO/B-Brand space.

While the group is changing its name, in the local markets it will keep operating under the current Virgin Mobile and “Friendi Mobile brands, and for existing as well as new markets the company plans to operate both brands to address different market segments where possible.