The Namibia Airports Company (NAC) has to wait until May to hear if the Windhoek High Court will compel advertising company Alliance Media Namibia to pay more than N$23.1 million for making use of its advertising space at the Hosea Kutako International Airport.
Judge Esi Schimming-Chase this week postponed the ruling to 13 May, stating the judgement was not ready.
NAC has been in court for nearly four years after it sued Alliance for its failure to honour a 2016 court order, which resulted from the company’s failure to make payments as per their 2008 agreement.
Alliance has not made any payments since June 2016, nor did it provide financial records, according to NAC.
In its court documents, NAC claims it entered into an agreement with Alliance for it to make use of 120 advertising spaces inside and outside areas of HKIA.
The agreement was extended in 2008 for three years, and again in 2011.
However, Alliance breached the terms of the 2008 agreement and the court ordered it to pay N$534 697 per month for the repayment of the N$17.5 million it owes NAC.
The advertising firm was also ordered to pay 58% of the revenue that was generated at HKIA after the expiration of the renewed agreement from September 2014 to date.
The payments are subject to Alliance providing audited statements of income to verify actual revenue generated.
However, the Alliance failed to make its monthly payments.
NAC is now seeking a court order for the payment of N$23.1 million and for Alliance to vacate HKIA.
In addition, NAC wants the court to compel Alliance to remove its advertising materials from the airport.
In submissions, NAC’s lawyer Reinhard Tötemeyer argued the conduct of Alliance has been egregious.
He said the company has been at HKIA premises for almost six years whilst refusing to pay the agreed amount.
“NAC is a public institution with limited resources at its disposal. The conduct of Alliance and its refusal to comply with its contractual obligations has deprived NAC of much-needed revenue,” he said, adding that Alliance has no defence to the application and its opposition was merely delay tactics.
In its Defence, Alliance’s country operations manager Heidi Guilheme claims NAC was first to bridge their contract when it started taking away advertising spaces allocated to them.
This made it difficult for them to plan and provide a secure tenure with its clients, the manager argued.
He refuted claims that the company has not met its obligations, citing payment of N$3.4 million was made for the months from September 2014 to July 2019.
Another payment of N$1.2 million was paid to NAC.
Alliance is accusing NAC of damaging some of the sites and preventing them from having access to the sites for repair.
Further, Alliance does not owe NAC the purported N$23.1 million.
The company’s lawyer Gerson Narib argued that NAC’s action to take away some of the advertising space meant for Alliance impaired their ability to pay.
“The result was that the 120 sites or facilities which were anticipated to be available to Alliance were not available and Alliance was unable to generate the funds necessary to make a prepayment or to make the monthly payment of N$534 697.00,” he said.
-mamakali@nepc.com.na