Patel, Taoi and Singh appointed to the ATH Board

The Fiji National Provident Fund has appointed Daksesh Patel, Joe Taoi and Attar Singh to the Amalgamated Telecom Holdings Board to reflect changes at the FNPF board level.

FNPF Chief Executive Officer, Viliame Vodonaivalu continues as the fourth Strategic Investor director.

As majority shareholder of the company and the “Strategic Investor” as defined in ATH’s Articles of Association, the FNPF currently has the right to appoint and/or replace up to four “Strategic Investor directors” (out of seven in total) in accordance with Article 6.5 of the ATH Articles of Association (AoA).

The ATH board currently comprises seven members of whom three are “Fiji directors”, elected at the company AGM from the non-FNPF shareholders.

Two “Fiji director” positions are vacant as a result of the resignations of Umarji Musa and Tupou’tuah Baravilala earlier this month.

Two new “Fiji directors” will shortly be appointed to fill these vacancies until the next AGM.

ATH’s Articles require the ATH board to elect its Chair.

A substantive Chair will be elected by its directors once the board is at full strength.

Daksesh Patel will act as interim Chair until that time.

FNPF has advised ATH that its decision to appoint new Strategic Investor directors reflects the importance it places on ATH and the need to focus on the immediate challenges before it.

These include the Vodafone PNG project, completion of BlueSky American Samoa network upgrades, remedial works at Vodafone Vanuatu after the adverse effects of two recent and devastating cyclones and the completion of the other pipeline ICT and telecommunications investments.

ATH is also recruiting a new CEO and other key managers.

FNPF currently has a 72.71 percent shareholding in ATH.

The Government of Fiji is the second largest shareholder with a 15.25 percent interest.