Vidatel and Geni understand that PT Ventures lost the right to receive the said compensation, by appointing three directors in 2019, since the consideration was determined in late 2018, considering the loss, in 2006, of this right to appoint.
“The compensation was for the total and permanent loss of the right to appoint three directors. However, PT Ventures, in 2019, has already appointed three directors, so it can no longer receive this compensation, it would be receiving compensation for something it has already recovered. For this reason, there is an arbitration process running at the CCI ”, details a source familiar to the process.
At the time, the other three shareholders vetoed this right from PT Ventures because this company passed to the control of the Brazilian Oi, which was interpreted as a violation of the shareholders’ agreement
The US $ 350 million is, moreover, the only amount that PT Ventures has to receive, following the February 2019 decision of the JRC which determined that PT Ventures, now under the control of Sonangol, received around 600 million of the $ 3 billion that it required from other shareholders.
On the occasion, the ICC ordered the shareholders Vidatel, Mercury (Sonangol) and Geni, jointly and severally, to pay 330 million euros in compensation to PT Ventures for loss of rights, in addition to another payment in the amount of 314 million euros in compensation for the missing dividend. The compensation amount, however, will have already been paid by Unitel.
The 330 million euros, however, are the basis of the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) to which PT Ventures appealed the ICC decision. Considering the preventive seizure of Vidatel’s actions by the Court of Luanda, BVI, understanding that Isabel dos Santos’ company would have difficulties in paying its share of the 330 million euros, decided to appoint a judicial administrator who will retain control preventive of participation and, sequentially, with the responsibility to collect the rights and pay Vidatel’s duties.
Despite confirming the values determined by the ICC, the BVI determined that the final decision of the higher court should be awaited, in this case the Tribunal de La Cassation de Paris (second instance), with the possibility of a third appeal if the parties do not arrive to an agreement. “It is a process that should still take a long time”, explains the VALOR source.
Sonangol, meanwhile, has been holding PT Ventures since January this year, becoming the rights holder of the 350 million dollars in question. In this sense, the oil company started to defend positions contrary to those it defended even before the aforementioned acquisition, a position justified with the need to create conditions that allow a consensus among shareholders.
