Diageo asks Kenyan chief justice to intervene in bids to stop $2.3 billion Asahi deal
Diageo asks Kenyan chief justice to intervene in bids to stop $2.3 billion Asahi deal NAIROBI, June 24 (Reuters) - Diageo's East African Breweries EABL.NR, DGE.L unit has written to Kenya's chief justice seeking to speed up hearings of a series of cases to block the $2.3 billion sale of a 65% stake in EABL to Japan's Asahi Holdings 2502.T, a letter seen by Reuters showed.
A minority shareholder secured a court order stopping the deal last week, the latest in a series of challenges to London-listed Diageo's plan to sell its majority stake in EABL to the Japanese brewer as it implements a turnaround strategy.
The deal, announced in December, has faced three legal challenges so far including from a Kenyan beer distributor and a building contractor. Two were ultimately dismissed but did temporarily block the deal.
In a fourth challenge launched last week, the EABL minority shareholder secured another block on the deal from the High Court in Machakos.
The suit questions whether minority stakeholders will be treated fairly, among other grievances.
EABL lawyers wrote on Tuesday to Chief Justice Martha Koome, calling her attention to a "proliferation of parallel proceedings" and the risk of conflicting orders in relation to the deal.
The letter raised concerns about "apparent forum shopping", and said the Machakos case represented a strategy to secure relief from another High Court that had already been declined by the High Court in Nairobi.
The deal was governed by a time-sensitive contractual and regulatory timetable spread across more than one country, it said.
There was no immediate response from Koome's office. Diageo did not immediately respond to a comment request.
The parties in the deal have said they expect the deal to be completed in the second half of this year.
(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Jan Harvey)
((duncan.miriri@thomsonreuters.com))