SENS Note - 28 November 2013
MTN continuation of legal proceedings
 
Shareholders are referred to the announcement released on the Stock Exchange News Service (SENS) of the JSE Ltd. by MTN on 29 March 2012 (as read with the earlier announcement of 2 February 2012) in which they were advised that Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS (Turkcell) and its subsidiary, East Asian Consortium (EAC), had instituted a claim against MTN and its subsidiary, MTN International (Mauritius) Ltd. (MTNI) in the US District Court in Washington DC arising out of EAC's unsuccessful effort to obtain the 2nd GSM Licence in Iran during 2005 (US Proceedings).

As shareholders are aware, Turkcell's claims in the US Proceedings were withdrawn on 1 May 2013.

While summons has not yet been formally served on it, MTN understands that Turkcell has now issued summons out of the South Gauteng High Court of South Africa against MTN, MTNI and others seeking damages of approximately USD4.2 billion plus interest, arising from substantially the same allegations on which the US Proceedings were founded.

Turkcell's allegations were investigated by a special committee (Hoffmann Committee) appointed by the MTN board of directors consisting of an external chairman, Lord Hoffmann, and two independent non- executive directors, and its findings reported by MTN on SENS on 1 February 2013. In summary, amongst others, shareholders were advised that, after a thorough examination of Turkcell's allegations and consideration of the available evidence, the Hoffmann Committee concluded that the allegations were unfounded.

As stated before, MTN will accordingly continue to vigorously defend any proceedings instituted by Turkcell in respect of such matters.
 
Click here for original article