Fraud Office Investigating Vodafone Ghana Investment

­The UK's Serious Fraud Office has been in contact with Vodafone over its increasingly controversial investment in Ghana. It has been reported by local media that the SFO has spoken to Vodafone's head of legal affairs, Stephen Scott although a formal investigation has not been launched.

Vodafone has previously said that "we are confident the transaction was conducted to the highest standards of corporate governance."

A review commissioned by the new Ghana government of Vodafone's purchase of Telecom Ghana recently concluded that the sale was not beneficial to the Ghanaian state.

The review, carried out by an Inter-Ministerial Review Committee has recommended that the government find a way of renegotiating the sale, which was completed in August 2008.

Although the sale of 70% of the company was was for a headline figure of US$900 million on a debt-free, cash-free basis, the review claimed that just US$267.6 million from the sale due to "complicated financial arrangements", and that the sale might be illegal in Ghana due as it was managed through a Dutch holding company.

The government is to make a decision on how to proceed within a couple of weeks. Vodafone said that it couldn't comment until it received a copy of the report.

The company was rebranded as Vodafone Ghana earlier this year.

Posted to the site on 3rd November 2009