{"id":440877,"date":"2011-06-14T12:35:40","date_gmt":"2011-06-14T12:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/"},"modified":"2011-06-14T12:35:40","modified_gmt":"2011-06-14T12:35:40","slug":"nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria: Visafone Finally Pulls Out of Multilinks Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

\"This<\/a><\/p>\n

Davidson Iriekpen<\/p>\n

13 June 2011<\/p>\n

\n

The acquisition of Multilinks CDMA mobile assets by Visafone is still-born as the ongoing legal tussle has drilled a final nail in the coffin.<\/p>\n

THISDAY learnt that Visafone has finally pulled the plug on the deal because of the litigation between Multilinks, owned by Telkom South Africa, and Helios Towers Nigeria Ltd, the company that built the towers being rented by the telecoms company.<\/p>\n

Last week, Justice Atinuke Ipaye of the Lagos High Court dismissed the suit instituted by Multilinks against Helios over alleged breach of agreement.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Multi-Links has denied reports that it concealed vital information from Visafone in their transactions, saying that there was nothing Visafone needed to know it did not make available to it.<\/p>\n

It also faulted the claim that it did not inform company that there was a court order barring their transactions, adding that the order was interim and had elapsed in December 2010 long before the transaction.<\/p>\n

Visafone had acquired Multilinks from Telkom South Africa, after the firm quit its CDMA operations in Nigeria in November 2010 owing to huge operating losses.<\/p>\n

But a dispute between Multi Links and Helios Towers had been a subject of litigation.<\/p>\n

The company had an agreement for a 10-year period but three years into the deal, Multilinks reportedly claimed that the contract was not binding or enforceable because it was not signed by a government official.<\/p>\n

Helios subsequently went to court, claiming $250 million in contractual payments from Multi Links.<\/p>\n

The Telkom Group had acquired 75 per cent of Multi Links Nigeria in the first instance in 2007 for $276 million dollars before acquiring the remaining 25 per cent in 2009 for $125 million giving it 100 per cent ownership of the firm.<\/p>\n

Delivering judgment in the case last week, Justice Ipaye said it was the position of the law that a person or party cannot be heard at the time of performance of his own side of the transaction to contend that the transaction is illegal, null and void after deriving benefit from the transaction.<\/p>\n

She added that it would be unfair and inequitable for a court of law to allow itself to be used as an instrument of illegality or an instrument for avoiding voluntarily assumed obligations under a valid contract no matter the guise.<\/p>\n

Justice Ipaye advised Multilinks to honour its agreements with Helios, saying that the Co-Location Master Lease Agreement and all the Site Lease Agreements (SLAs) made in connection with the agreements are valid and subsisting until determined in a manner stipulated by the agreement itself.<\/p>\n

Referring to clauses one and two of the SLA, the judge noted that it was evident that Helios did not grant any exclusive possession of the cell site to Multilinks and it fact, reserved a right to put other into possession of the site, towers and facilities.<\/p>\n

“In the instant case and without a shadow of doubt, Exhibit A (SLA) exhibits the three indices of a lease agreement, namely certainty of parties, certainty of tenor and certainty of property, nevertheless by virtue of the fact that the alleged lessee has not right of exclusive possession to the site, Exhibit cannot by any stretch of imagination be deemed to be a lease capable of transferring an estate in land to the alleged lessee, I so hold,” she said.<\/p>\n

Submitting that the parties never contemplated that a proprietary interest in land was by the agreement being conveyed to Multi-Links, Justice Ipaye added that the SLA not being an agreement that conveys an interest or title to land, she held that the requirement of Section 22 of the Land Use Act which demands that prior consent of the governor must first be obtained before the holder of a statutory right of occupancy alienates mortgages or assigns his interest in land is inapplicable.<\/p>\n

Multi-Links had urged the court to determine, among other things, whether the non-compliance with the provisions of Section 22 and 26 of the Land Use Act 1978 in respect of the leases Helios granted it (Multilinks) for a term of 10 years by a series of Site Lease Agreements and Co-Location Master Agreement entered into in 2007 and 2009 did not make such leases illegal, void and unenforceable.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nMore News on allAfrica.com<\/strong><\/legend>\n<\/fieldset>\n

AllAfrica – All the Time<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Link:
\nNigeria: Visafone Finally Pulls Out of Multilinks Deal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Davidson Iriekpen 13 June 2011 The acquisition of Multilinks CDMA mobile assets by Visafone is still-born as the ongoing legal tussle has drilled a final nail in the coffin. THISDAY learnt that Visafone has finally pulled the plug on the deal because of the litigation between Multilinks, owned by Telkom South Africa, and Helios Towers Nigeria Ltd, the company that built the towers being rented by the telecoms company. Last week, Justice Atinuke Ipaye of the Lagos High Court dismissed the suit instituted by Multilinks against Helios over alleged breach of agreement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nNigeria: Visafone Finally Pulls Out of Multilinks Deal - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Nigeria: Visafone Finally Pulls Out of Multilinks Deal - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Davidson Iriekpen 13 June 2011 The acquisition of Multilinks CDMA mobile assets by Visafone is still-born as the ongoing legal tussle has drilled a final nail in the coffin. THISDAY learnt that Visafone has finally pulled the plug on the deal because of the litigation between Multilinks, owned by Telkom South Africa, and Helios Towers Nigeria Ltd, the company that built the towers being rented by the telecoms company. Last week, Justice Atinuke Ipaye of the Lagos High Court dismissed the suit instituted by Multilinks against Helios over alleged breach of agreement\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/thisday180.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Nigeria: Visafone Finally Pulls Out of Multilinks Deal\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-14T12:35:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/\"},\"wordCount\":714,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/thisday180.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/\",\"name\":\"Nigeria: Visafone Finally Pulls Out of Multilinks Deal - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/thisday180.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-14T12:35:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/thisday180.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/thisday180.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nigeria: Visafone Finally Pulls Out of Multilinks Deal - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Nigeria: Visafone Finally Pulls Out of Multilinks Deal - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Davidson Iriekpen 13 June 2011 The acquisition of Multilinks CDMA mobile assets by Visafone is still-born as the ongoing legal tussle has drilled a final nail in the coffin. THISDAY learnt that Visafone has finally pulled the plug on the deal because of the litigation between Multilinks, owned by Telkom South Africa, and Helios Towers Nigeria Ltd, the company that built the towers being rented by the telecoms company. Last week, Justice Atinuke Ipaye of the Lagos High Court dismissed the suit instituted by Multilinks against Helios over alleged breach of agreement","twitter_image":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/thisday180.jpg","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Nigeria: Visafone Finally Pulls Out of Multilinks Deal","datePublished":"2011-06-14T12:35:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/"},"wordCount":714,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/thisday180.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/","name":"Nigeria: Visafone Finally Pulls Out of Multilinks Deal - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/thisday180.jpg","datePublished":"2011-06-14T12:35:40+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/nigeria-visafone-finally-pulls-out-of-multilinks-deal\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/thisday180.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/thisday180.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}