Africa-Press – South-Africa. A bid by BT Communications Services SA to oust a subsidiary of Iqbal Survé’s Sekunjalo as its black economic empowerment partner is headed to the International Court of Arbitration (ICA) next month.
The court, which falls under the International Chamber of Commerce, offers global dispute resolution services to the private and public sectors for a fee.
The quarrel dates from June 2021, when the South African arm of BT (formerly British Telecoms) announced it wanted to cut ties with Sekunjalo and explore “alternative options” to meet its BEE obligations.
Since 2008, entities in the Sekunjalo group have held 30% of BT-SA’s shares. The two companies appear to have initially had a good relationship, with Survé serving for a spell as chairperson of BT-SA’s board.
This changed in June 2021 when BT-SA announced it wanted to exercise a call option to buy back its shares from Sekunjalo’s JSE-listed subsidiary, African Equity Empowerment Investments (AEEI).
The deciding factor appears to have been two briefings by Sekunjalo before Parliament in early 2021 about BT-SA’s business relationship with another Sekunjalo subsidiary, AYO Technology Solutions.
But according to BT-SA, Sekunjalo overstated the commercial aspects of the relationship between the two companies.
It also accused AYO of including incorrect assumptions about the relationship in its pre-listing statement before it listed on the JSE in late 2017.
Following Sekunjalo’s briefings in early 2021, BT-SA wrote to Parliament to correct what it called a “misrepresentation of facts”.
At the same time, it announced it wanted to end is relationship with Sekunjalo, which would include buying back the shares that AEEI holds.
But AEEI denied that BT-SA could legally exercise a call option to buy back the shares.
The dispute reached a deadlock and fell from public view until AEEI announced on Wednesday that the matter was to be heard by the ICA between 10 and 21 July 2023.
A spokesperson for the court said that hearings were strictly confidential and not open to the public or media.
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