Investors

Reference is made to our announcements of 22 April 2019, 26 April 2019 and 8 May 2019 (“Previous Announcements”).

Unless defined here, capitalised terms in this announcement shall bear the same meaning as defined in the Previous Announcements.

Axiata wishes to inform that the full bench of the Supreme Court of Nepal has heard the writ petition filed by Ncell Private Limited (“Ncell”), its indirect 80% owned subsidiary in the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal held through Axiata UK against the Large Taxpayers Office of Nepal (“LTPO”), Inland Revenue Department of Nepal and the Ministry of Finance of Nepal and had issued its full written judgment on 21 November 2019 (“SC Judgement”) .

The SC Judgment states that the prior tax amount assessed by the LTPO is to be reduced to the extent of fees purportedly levied under section 120(a) of the Nepalese Income Tax Act (“ITA”) which were found to be unlawful. The Supreme Court has held that Ncell remains liable to pay NPR21,103,971,565 (approximately US$182.69 million) in allegedly outstanding CGT (including fees pursuant to sections 117(1)(a) and (c) of the ITA and interest pursuant to sections 118 and 119 of the ITA until the date of deposit) in relation to the Transaction.

As announced on 26 April 2019, Ncell and Axiata UK have filed a Request for Arbitration with the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes ("BIT Arbitration") pursuant to the Agreement dated 2 March 1993 between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of Nepal for the Promotion and Protection of Investments. The basis of the BIT Arbitration is that the Transaction involved the transfer of shares outside of Nepal in a non-Nepalese company and is not subject to CGT. In the context of the Transaction, Axiata and Ncell were the buyer and the target respectively and neither made any capital gains in consequence of the transaction.

Axiata also refers to paragraph (b) of the background information of our announcement of 22 April 2019 and wishes to clarify that the total deposit paid to the LTPO in 2017 is the sum of NPR23.6 billion and not NPR13.6 billion as stated therein.

This announcement is dated 22 November 2019.