Shareholders file injunction against sale of uniBank properties

Six shareholders of the defunct uniBank have filed an interlocutory injunction to stop the receiver of the bank, Nii Amanor Dodoo, from interfering with the affairs of the bank and selling its assets.

They want the Commercial Division of the Accra High Court to restrain the receiver or any entity acting in his name from taking any action in relation to uniBank until the final determination of their counterclaim challenging the revocation of the bank’s licence and the appointment of the receiver.

Per the injunction application, the shareholders are praying the court to “restrain the receiver, his principals, assigns, agents and all persons claiming authority from him from interfering with the properties and assets of uniBank Ghana Limited by any means, including by sale, through auction or any other means.”

It is the argument of the shareholders that they will suffer irreparable damage if the receiver is not restrained from selling the properties of uniBank until the final determination of their counterclaim.

The shareholders who initiated the legal action are Dr Kwabena Duffour, Hoda Holdings Limited, Hoda Properties Limited, Integrated Properties Limited, Alban Logistics Limited and Bolton Portfolio Limited.

Lawyers for the shareholders are expected to move the application for interlocutory injunction on June 17, 2019.

Suit and counterclaim

The six shareholders are part of 17 shareholders who were sued by the receiver on September 4, 2018, for allegedly collapsing the bank.

It is the case of the receiver that the 17 shareholders allegedly breached their fiduciary duties as directors of the bank and in the process made the bank to incur a GH¢5.7 billion debt leading to its collapse.

The shareholders include Starlife Assurance, Dr Kwabena Duffuor II, Opoku Gyamfi Boateng, Prof. Newman Kwadwo-Kusi and Owusu Ansah Awere.

The rest are Ekow Nyarko Dadzie-Dennis, Clifford Duke Mettle, Boatemaa Kakra Duffour-Nyarko, Kofi Kyereh Darkwah, Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye and Alex Gaddiel Buabeng.

The defendants denied all the allegations and on October 12, 2018, three of them filed a counterclaim accusing the plaintiff of certain infractions and, therefore, seeking certain reliefs.

Dr Duffuor II, Prof. Kwadwo-Kusi and Ms Duffuor-Nyarko, in the counterclaim accused the receiver of issuing a defective report leading to the collapse of the bank.

They, therefore, argued that the whole process leading to the revocation of uniBank’s banking licence to the appointment of the receiver was an illegality which should not be made to stand.

Arbitration

On May 17, 2019, the court, presided over by Justice Jennifer Abena Dadzie, ordered the parties to appear before an arbitrator to settle the aspect of the counterclaim that had to do with the revocation of the licence of uniBank as stipulated in the Bank and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930).

The court, however, decided to hear other aspects of the counterclaim that did not fall under Act 930.