Telkom faces R4bn Multi-Links damages claim

22 Nov 2011

African Prepaid Services Nigeria (APSN), a now-mostly-dormant company in which JSE-listed Blue Label Telecoms has an effective 37% stake, is claiming US$481m, or about R4bn at the prevailing exchange rate, in damages from Multi-Links, Telkom's former Nigerian subsidiary, after Multi-Links walked away from a lucrative, 10-year contract with the company.

Multi-Links has filed a counterclaim of $123,9m.

Though Telkom has sold the Multi-Links business - the sale to Hip Oils Topco became effective in October - part of the agreement of sale stipulates that the JSE-listed telecommunications group must accept liability for "certain litigation claims" against Multi-Links if these claims exceed $10m.

However, Telkom said this week it was "not considered probable" that the claims would exceed $10m and also that it had filed a counterclaim against APSN. Telkom had not responded to a query from TechCentral by the time of publication seeking details for its reasons for filing the counterclaim. However, it has said APSN has filed its defence to the counterclaim.

Continue reading the full story on www.TechCentral.co.za.

About Duncan McLeod: @mcleodd

Award-wining Duncan McLeod is the founder and editor of TechCentral (wwwTechCentral.co.za, @TechCentral]]), South Africa's latest technology news site offering breaking news, in-depth analysis and opinion that launched in September 2009. Before that, he was associate editor at the Financial Mail/FM. Contact Duncan on email duncan at techcentral dot co dot za and follow him on Twitter at @mcleodd.

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