Court rules against Vodacom’s acquisition of Neotel licences

The High Court in Pretoria has reportedly ruled against Vodacom’s takeover of Neotel’s licences as part of the companies’ ZAR7 billion (USD566 million) merger, following an appeal logged by rivals MTN, Telkom and Cell C, Business Tech reports. Attorney Dominic Cull was cited as saying: ‘The merger deal as originally conceived between Vodacom and Neotel is definitely dead in the water now … If Vodacom had to go back to try and reapply for the licences it would take forever.’ The decision follows Vodacom’s resolution in early December 2015 to drop plans to acquire Neotel’s spectrum, electronics communications network (ECN) and electronics communications network services (ECNS) concessions. As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, under the modified deal Vodacom will acquire inter alia the majority of Neotel’s assets related to its fixed-line business, while also gaining access to Neotel’s mobile spectrum under a roaming arrangement.