Telecommunications company, 9mobile, has described the exit of one of its shareholders and non-executive director, Adrian Wood, as a demonstration of “rascality, impatience and knavery”. The firm said Adrian Wood’s Teleology Holdings Limited, which owned a minority stake in Teleology Nigeria Limited, had failed to fulfill its obligations to the business since inception. Teleology Holdings had earlier cited “unsatisfactory business relationship with the local partner” as the reason for its planned exit.
The company added that it was also blocked from concluding a management services contract with the local joint venture, Teleology Nigeria Limited.
However, 9mobile, in a statement signed by its Director, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs, Oluseyi Osunsedo, said Teleology Nigeria Limited is a consortium including several local and foreign investors. “While every partner in the consortium was delivering and meeting their obligations to the partnership in terms of financial resources, physical availability for crucial meetings and extensive network to help build the business, Mr. Adrian Wood’s Teleology Holdings Limited, which only owned a minority stake in Teleology Nigeria Limited, failed severally and wholly to meet theirs.
“Mr. Wood was not personally present for all the critical presentations made by the consortium during the bid process and failed abjectly with his financing arrangements with Swiss-based UBS Bank. In all these failings, other partners in the consortium filled the gap and pushed ahead until the sale was completed,” it said. The statement noted that since taking over the company, and without any assistance from Wood or Teleology Holdings, the Board of 9mobile had revived and enhanced relationships with key vendors and core business accounts; improved business relationships with suppliers; enhanced its core network capabilities to deliver network efficiency competitively with other operators.
“With the assistance of leading global consultants, the company is also undertaking a complete review of its operational, regulatory, financial and technical architecture. On these basis, 9mobile has emerged from a period of uncertainty over the past two years to attain an active subscriber base of 16 million, representing a net increase of over 1 million subscribers in the last six weeks alone. “It is regrettable that Mr. Wood has allowed the same avarice, rascality, impatience and knavery that characterized his turbulent association with, and inglorious exits from several other companies to manifest again so early in 9mobile.
“While we wish him well in his future endeavours, we unequivocally assure our customers, suppliers, partners, regulators, and stakeholders that the Board is committed to continuing the upward mobility of 9mobile. “Having invested so heavily in buying the company, and assembling a reliable team to pursue our goals, we want to categorically state that no distractions can stop us from this mission,” he said.
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