Court orders seizure of Ital Construct property
Ivory Finance Company, a member of the CDH Holdings Group, has secured a court order to seize and sell properties belonging to Ital Construct Limited and two of its directors, to defray debts owed the company totalling GH₵232 million.
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The company had earlier, also secured a similar ruling against the State Insurance Company (SIC), which had issued Ital Construct Limited with a credit guarantee based on which the loan was granted to Ital.
The company, in furtherance of the court’s ruling yesterday, posted notices of attachment on the premises of Ital Construct Limited’s estate at East Legon.
Per the court’s ruling, Ivory Finance Company can go ahead with the process of valuation, reserve pricing and other preparations to sell the property of Ital Construct Limited.
Similar case against SIC
The company had initiated a similar action against the SIC and seized 15 vehicles belonging to the company among others, but the SIC had gone to court pleading that the seizure of its vehicles would affect its operations adversely.
Based on an undertaking by the managing director of the SIC that the company would return the vehicles in the event that they lost the appeal, the court obliged and granted the request for the vehicles to be released.
Per that ruling, the headquarters of the SIC, the official residence of its acting managing director and other landed properties of the company are under attachment by Ivory Finance Company.
Ital Construct Limited led by two of its directors, Kwesi Baidoo and James Kwegyir Aggrey, secured a loan of GH₵14 million from Ivory Finance Company in 2013 for the construction of affordable housing units on behalf of the government of Ghana.
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The loan was to be repaid in six months.
As part of the processes for the granting of the loan, Ital was asked to produce a credit guarantee from a credit-worthy institution following which it presented one from the State Insurance Company (SIC) Limited.
The loan was accordingly granted but at the expiration of the sixth month, repayment had neither been made by Ital nor its guarantor, SIC, and after a number of prodding, Ivory initiated a court action against the two institutions and the two directors of Ital to retrieve the money.
After a prolonged legal battle, the court ruled in favour of Ivory Finance Company Limited. Ital and SIC appealed the ruling but had both cases thrown out.
The SIC filed an application for an order to stop the takeover and sale of its properties by Ital and the case was slated for hearing on July 23, 2015 but the judge ordered both parties to file written submissions and subsequently adjourned the application to October 19, 2015 for ruling.
Writer’s email: victor.kwawukume@graphic.com.gh