OSLO, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Norwegian telecom group Telenor ASA said it hoped for an amicable solution to a row with Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus over their Bangladesh company Grameenphone, which it aims to list on the Dhaka bourse.
Yunus, who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize with his Grameen Bank for work to lift millions out of poverty, said on Thursday Telenor had failed to honour a 1996 agreement to hand full control of Grameenphone over to Yunus's Grameen Telecom.
Telenor said it was 'very surprised' by Yunus' statement and hoped to continue good relations, but repeated that the 1996 deal was not binding.
'In the matter of ownership, we disagree with Professor Yunus' view that we have an agreement to give the company to him,' Telenor said. It noted that the shareholder agreement stipulated disagreements had to be settled by arbitration.
Yunus threatened to take legal action against Telenor, which owns 62 percent of Grameenphone, if it did not fulfil an agreement with Grameen Telecom, which owns the rest. Telenor has repeatedly said the shareholder deal is invalid.
Yunus pulled no punches during a brief visit to Oslo.
'Telenor now tells me that it was a mistake to rely on their words,' he said in a statement and appealed to the Norwegian people to force Telenor, which is 54 percent state owned, to honour the deal.
He cited a report by Norwegian NRK television this week that showed child workers being used at subcontractors to Grameenphone and cited $60 million fines imposed on Grameenphone by Bangladesh for illegal use of voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) in its international operations.
'Grameen and I cannot be identified with this,' said Yunus.
Telenor shares closed down 4.1 percent at 77.80 crowns, underperforming a 2.8 percent drop in the Oslo bourse benchmark index and a similar fall in the DJ Stoxx Telecoms Index <.SXKP>.
LISTING PLANS
Telenor reiterated that it still aimed to list Grameenphone, the top cellphone operator in the south Asian country.
'The IPO could be this year or next ... At the moment, things are a bit unpredictable,' spokesman Dag Melgaard said. He declined to say how much Telenor wanted to own after an IPO.
Yunus, who pioneered micro-loans to the rural poor -- mostly women -- of Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest countries, urged the Norwegian government, which holds 54 percent of Telenor, to step in to resolve the issue.
'I am confident the people of Norway will see to it that the companies that they own and control honour their written intention, in all cases, and especially when dealing with the poor women of Bangladesh,' Yunus said.
Grameenphone has provided mobile phones to 300,000 women in villages who earn a living by letting people use the phones.
Yunus said he hoped legal action would prove unnecessary 'because the owners of Telenor will require the company to honour the intention it expressed', to transfer ownership and control of Grameen Phone to his group.
Yunus said although both Telenor and Grameen Telecom were seeking growth in the phone company, Telenor's agenda to 'maximize returns for the benefit of its owners' was in conflict with the 'social and non-profit agenda of Grameen Telecom'.
Telenor has faced criticism over safety conditions and use of child labour by its subcontractors in Bangladesh.
On Friday, it cited international statistics showing child labour and unsafe work conditions are problems in Bangladesh and said it, Grameephone and Yunus himself all had to bear responsibility.
(Additional reporting by John Acher and Wojciech Moskwa; Editing by Will Waterman and David Holmes) ($1=5.585 Norwegian Crown) Keywords: TELENOR/ tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomsonreuters.com wj COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
Yunus, who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize with his Grameen Bank for work to lift millions out of poverty, said on Thursday Telenor had failed to honour a 1996 agreement to hand full control of Grameenphone over to Yunus's Grameen Telecom.
Telenor said it was 'very surprised' by Yunus' statement and hoped to continue good relations, but repeated that the 1996 deal was not binding.
'In the matter of ownership, we disagree with Professor Yunus' view that we have an agreement to give the company to him,' Telenor said. It noted that the shareholder agreement stipulated disagreements had to be settled by arbitration.
Yunus threatened to take legal action against Telenor, which owns 62 percent of Grameenphone, if it did not fulfil an agreement with Grameen Telecom, which owns the rest. Telenor has repeatedly said the shareholder deal is invalid.
Yunus pulled no punches during a brief visit to Oslo.
'Telenor now tells me that it was a mistake to rely on their words,' he said in a statement and appealed to the Norwegian people to force Telenor, which is 54 percent state owned, to honour the deal.
He cited a report by Norwegian NRK television this week that showed child workers being used at subcontractors to Grameenphone and cited $60 million fines imposed on Grameenphone by Bangladesh for illegal use of voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) in its international operations.
'Grameen and I cannot be identified with this,' said Yunus.
Telenor shares closed down 4.1 percent at 77.80 crowns, underperforming a 2.8 percent drop in the Oslo bourse benchmark index and a similar fall in the DJ Stoxx Telecoms Index <.SXKP>.
LISTING PLANS
Telenor reiterated that it still aimed to list Grameenphone, the top cellphone operator in the south Asian country.
'The IPO could be this year or next ... At the moment, things are a bit unpredictable,' spokesman Dag Melgaard said. He declined to say how much Telenor wanted to own after an IPO.
Yunus, who pioneered micro-loans to the rural poor -- mostly women -- of Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest countries, urged the Norwegian government, which holds 54 percent of Telenor, to step in to resolve the issue.
'I am confident the people of Norway will see to it that the companies that they own and control honour their written intention, in all cases, and especially when dealing with the poor women of Bangladesh,' Yunus said.
Grameenphone has provided mobile phones to 300,000 women in villages who earn a living by letting people use the phones.
Yunus said he hoped legal action would prove unnecessary 'because the owners of Telenor will require the company to honour the intention it expressed', to transfer ownership and control of Grameen Phone to his group.
Yunus said although both Telenor and Grameen Telecom were seeking growth in the phone company, Telenor's agenda to 'maximize returns for the benefit of its owners' was in conflict with the 'social and non-profit agenda of Grameen Telecom'.
Telenor has faced criticism over safety conditions and use of child labour by its subcontractors in Bangladesh.
On Friday, it cited international statistics showing child labour and unsafe work conditions are problems in Bangladesh and said it, Grameephone and Yunus himself all had to bear responsibility.
(Additional reporting by John Acher and Wojciech Moskwa; Editing by Will Waterman and David Holmes) ($1=5.585 Norwegian Crown) Keywords: TELENOR/ tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomsonreuters.com wj COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
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