Sale of yuMobile stalls as telcos await new CAK board
Madhur Taneja, the yuMobile chief executive, says absence of CAK board has delayed the response of parties involved in the transaction. Photo/FILE
What you need to know:
President Uhuru Kenyatta and ICT secretary Fred Matiang’i are yet to name the new board, despite the expiry of timelines set by the law that created the authority.
The names of tree nominees for CAK chairman position were presented to the President on May 9 by the special selection panel.
The President was expected to pick one of the names and announce it 14 days after receiving the names as required by the Kenya Communication Amendment ACT 2013.
The delayed appointment of Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) board members has put the intended sale of yuMobile to Safaricom and Airtel in abeyance.
Madhur Taneja, the yuMobile chief executive, said on Friday the absence of the CAK board has delayed the response of parties involved in the transaction on the conditions set by the regulator for approval of the deal.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and ICT secretary Fred Matiang’i are yet to name the new board, despite the expiry of timelines set by the law that created the authority.
“None of the parties have responded to CAK’s demands. We are still waiting for the announcement of the new CAK board,” Mr Taneja told the Business Daily in a phone interview on Friday.
The President was expected to pick one of the names and announce it 14 days after receiving the names as required by the Kenya Communication Amendment ACT 2013.
Francis Wangusi, the CAK director general, said approval of the yuMobile deal is a function of the CAK management, but the parties may have issues they want to raise with the board.
“We have not heard from them since we gave the conditional approval. As I said earlier we did not give any timeline for them to do this. The approval is to be done by the management,” said Mr Wangusi.
In an earlier interview Bob Collymore, Safaricom’s CEO, said his company was not looking at the conditions that the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) had set to accept or reject them but was instead studying them for any possible avenue of going back to the transaction.
On Friday he said they are still discussing the matter with the two other parties.
“We are still discussing with Airtel and Essar,” said Mr Collymore, responding to the Business Daily’s questions on whether they are still part of the deal. Mr Taneja said parties to the transaction had identified a number of contentious issues in CAK’s 14 conditions and sought clarification that would enable them make a decision.
In a previous interview Mr Taneja said Airtel had particularly sought a clarification on when it should pay the $5.4 million (Sh469 million) fee that CAK had set for the planned takeover of yuMobile assets.
Airtel wanted to know whether it is required to pay the amount now or wait to do so in January 2015 when its licence comes up for renewal.
Safaricom is understood to be seeking a clarification on the directive that it opens up its mobile money agency network to rivals.
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