Tanzania's second largest telco, Tigo, has initiated the process of floating 25 per cent of its shares to the public by submitting its prospectus to the Capital Markets and Securities Authority (CMSA).
However, its owning company, MIC Tanzania Ltd, must solve the mystery of who owns what stake in the company for the CMSA to go ahead with the process.
At the centre of Tigo’s shareholding quagmire is Golden Globe International Services, a company registered in the British overseas territory of Virgin Islands, that claims to own 99 per cent of MIC Tanzania Ltd.
The company, through its lawyers, Brick House Law Associates, claims to have bought the majority shares at a public auction ordered by the High Court in Dar es Salaam in November 2014. It claims that the remaining share belongs to a company called Shai Holdings.
Sources said that the law firm had written to CMSA asking it to stop the IPO process, noting that it is an attempt by MIC executives to sell shares that belong to Golden Globe.
CMSA public relations manager Charles Shirima did not confirm whether they were in receipt of such a letter from Brick House Law Associates, but said they were aware of the ownership row in Tigo, and want the matter resolved before the authority approves their prospectus.
Shares sold
“Actually, we have not halted the Tigo listing process, but we have asked them to resolve the shareholding problem before we go ahead with the process” said Mr Shirima.
Golden Globe bases its claim on a judgment issued by the High Court in 2014, in which 34,479 shares (out of 34,480) in MIC Tanzania Ltd were attached and sold to Golden Globe International Services Ltd for Tsh3 billion ($5,685,370). The auction was ordered in favour of one, James Bell, who had sued a former parent company of MIC Tanzania Ltd, Millicom International Cellular SA, in which he was a senior director.
The Court of Appeal of Tanzania has initiated revision of the said High Court decision on its own motion after receiving a letter of complaint from Millicom (Tanzania) NV, a limited liability company registered under the laws of Curacao, claiming to be the majority shareholder of MIC Tanzania Ltd.
Millicom NV claims to be a wholly separate legal entity with no relationship to Millicom International Cellular SA, and that the decision reached by the high court against shares of Millicom NV in Tigo was faulty because Millicom International Cellular SA doesn’t have shares in Tigo.
Implicated in the ongoing revision by the Court of Appeal are Yusuf Manji believed to be the owner of Golden Globe International Services, Court’s District Registrar Pamela Mazengo and the Business Registration and Licensing Agency.
The government of Tanzania had given phone companies up to December 31, 2016 to start the process of listing on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange.