On Thursday, at end of a crucial management meeting of the telecom firm in Lagos, 9Mobile was unanimously adopted by the company as its new brand name.
Following Thursday’s announcement of the new brand name, all staff of the company nationwide were sent notices of the change of name. However, the company’s new name is yet to be unveiled officially to the public, according to our correspondents in Nigeria.
EMTS Vice President Regulatory and Corporate Affairs, Ibrahim Dikko, assured that the new brand name would not affect the company’s operations in the Africa’s largest economy.
New chief executive, Boye Olusanya added that the new management was mandated to ensure the business was run as profitable venture.
“What is most important now is to ensure the business runs and meets its obligations. We will focus on getting the company back on track as soon as possible,” he said.
On why the company still using Etisalat name, Mr Dikko explained that the company had a valid and subsisting agreement with its former parent company, to continue using the Etisalat brand regardless of the recent restructuring of the company.
The chief executive of Etisalat International Group, Hatem Dowidar, on Monday said Etisalat Group would in the next three weeks, phase out the brand name in Nigeria.
The decision African Eye Report gathered followed Emirates Telecommunications Group (Etisalat Group) withdrawal of further involvement in the ownership of the Nigerian subsidiary.
Choosing to part ways with the company followed the crisis in the wake of the $1.2 billion syndicated loan the telecom firm took in 2013 from a consortium of 13 Nigerian banks.
Etisalat Nigeria, Emirates Group disclosed in a filing with the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange it had transferred 100 per cent of its shares with EMTS Holding BV, a special purpose vehicle established in Netherlands, to United Capital Trustees Limited, legal trustees of the banks.
Last week, Nigerian regulators made attempts to save Etisalat Nigeria from collapse after talks with its lenders to renegotiate a $1.2 billion loan failed.
Etisalat had been in the news for its debt crisis which continued to take a different twist by the minute. On Monday 3rd of July 2017, it was announced that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had finally taken over “highly indebted Etisalat Nigeria Ltd.”
This came after the resignation of the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Matthew Willsher, and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Mr Wole Obasunloye.
Until June 15, the United Arab Emirates, UAE, group was a major shareholder in Etisalat Nigeria, along with United Arab Emirates Sovereign Wealth Fund through Mubadala Development Company, Abu Dhabi.
The two affiliates controlled a combined 85 per cent equity in the telecom firm, with Myacinth holding 15 per cent stake through Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services (EMTS) Holding BV, owned by Hakeem Bello-Osagie.
The embattled mobile company has 19.3 million subscribers as at March 2017.
African Eye Report