The Port Louis-based lender has issued a notice in the latest issue of the Kenya Gazette saying it will forcibly take over the shares held by Firoz Haiderali Jessa of W.E. Tilley in Fidelity Bank.
Other Fidelity owners to have their stocks transferred to SBM are Aziz Hassanali Hasham Javer, an engineer based in the diaspora; as well as Ojelo Investments Ltd, associated with John H Ougo (deceased).
A director at fish processor W.E. Tilley, named in the fall of Imperial Bank, is among three Fidelity Bank minority shareholders who will have their stakes compulsorily acquired by Mauritian lender SBM Holdings.
The Port Louis-based lender has issued a notice in the latest issue of the Kenya Gazette saying it will forcibly take over the shares held by Firoz Haiderali Jessa of W.E. Tilley in Fidelity Bank.
Other Fidelity owners to have their stocks transferred to SBM are Aziz Hassanali Hasham Javer, an engineer based in the diaspora; as well as Ojelo Investments Ltd, associated with John H Ougo (deceased). The three holdouts have a combined 4.91 per cent equity in Fidelity Bank.
“The outstanding shareholders are hereby notified that the offeror (SBM Holdings) has commenced the process of compulsorily acquiring the remaining 4.91 per cent of the entire issued share capital in FCB,” the Mauritian lender said in the gazette issue of April 7, 2017. SBM Holdings revealed that its offer to wholly acquire troubled Fidelity Bank for Sh100 had received the backing of shareholders owning 95.09 per cent of the Kenyan tier III lender. Fidelity has a total of 45 shareholders, all local, with nine designated as corporates, and the remaining 36 being individuals.
Mr Jessa’s failure to accept the SMB offer is linked to a court order freezing all the assets of W.E. Tilley and its directors in connection to the fish monger’s role in the collapse of Imperial Bank.
High Court judge Fred Ochieng in October 2015 froze assets and bank accounts owned by W.E. Tilley as well as those belonging to a network of 19 other companies and businessmen that were allegedly used as conduits to siphon Sh44.9 billion from Imperial Bank.
The Companies Act sets 90 per cent as the threshold for a company to forcefully buy out holdouts and take full control of an acquisition.
“If an offeror holds 90 per cent of the shares of the target company, he may squeeze out the remaining 10 per cent by force,” said Shitul Shah, a partner at Daly & Inamdar Advocates.
Bharat Thakrar, founder and chief executive of Scangroup, is the fourth largest shareholder at Fidelity with a six per cent stake.
The Khimji family controls 32.60 per cent of Fidelity Bank, held through various family members and entities.
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