Areeba goes on Appeal

Published in December 2006

SCANCOM Ghana Limited, operators of Areeba mobile phone network, have gone to the Court of Appeal to challenge the decision of the Accra Commercial Court not to stay proceedings in a suit brought against it and two others by a Ghanaian businessman.
Consequently, the court, presided over by Mr Justice Henry A. Kwofie, yesterday adjourned the case to February 7, 2007.
The court refused the application to stay proceedings on December 8, 2006 because it did not have the inherent jurisdiction to stay proceedings in the matter.
At the court’s sitting yesterday, the judge said he was adjourning the case not because of any order from the superior court but out of caution because he had sighted a notice for stay of proceedings.
Scancom Ghana Limited are challenging the Commercial Court’s dismissal of its application to strike out a suit filed against it by a Ghanaian businessman, Mr Richmond Aggrey.
Mr Aggrey, who is claiming 20 per cent interest in Scancom Ghana Limited, also joined Investcom Consortium Holdings SA, Beirut, and Grandview Management, Texas, to the suit as the first and third respondents.
Counsel for the plaintiff, Mr Yonny Kulendi, drew the court’s attention to two applications, namely an injunction notice and an application for judgement in default of defence, which had been filed by the plaintiff.
He urged the court to go ahead with the matter and said by the nature of the case the second application ought to take precedence over the injunction.
The plaintiff sued Investment Consortium Holdings, the majority shareholder in Scancom Limited, and Grandview Management Limited when Scancom decided to engage in a merger deal with MTN Incorporated of South Africa.
The deal has, however, been concluded following the transfer of all shares in Scancom to the South African company.
That was after a High Court order on July 14, 2006 restraining Scancom Ghana Limited and other respondents from "continuing, progressing and or concluding the merger with and/or acquisition of Investment Consortium Holdings by MTN Company of South Africa without taking into account and/or providing for the plaintiff's 20 per cent shares in Scancom Limited".
The closure of the acquisition, according to Mr Aggrey, would occasion the loss of his shareholding in the company by reason of the accrual of the rights of the MTN Group as a third party.
Mr Aggrey's contention is that his name had been removed from the shareholders’ list of Scancom Limited without any explanation.
He said the particulars of the directors and shareholders of Scancom Limited obtained from the Registrar-General's Department, dated June 2, 2006 and signed by Mr K. A. Ohene-Obeng, a Chief State Attorney, for the Registrar of Companies, indicated that his name was not included in the shareholders’ list.
The plaintiff said the onus was on the company to explain how he ceased to be a shareholder.