Lancaster 101 has rejected claims that it has withdrawn its R12bn legal case against Steinhoff, saying it continues to pursue the matter in court..
On Monday, it was reported that Lancaster had abandoned legal action against Steinhoff’s settlement offer to dozens of aggrieved shareholders, removing one of the stumbling blocks to closing a chapter in the country’s biggest accounting fraud.
Lancaster, an investment unit of Jayendra Naidoo, borrowed billions of rand from the Public Investment Corporation to buy a stake in Steinhoff. It is one of various investors who are opposed to Steinhoff’s R14bn offer to settle claims worth more than R130bn from investors and business partners. They have filed lawsuits on the grounds that they were duped into buying worthless shares.
Under Steinhoff’s offer, Lancaster would get about R200m from a claim of more than R12bn, which prompted Naidoo in March to challenge the settlement proposal as unfair because it favoured holders of Steinhoff debt.
The case was heard on Friday at a court in Amsterdam, where Steinhoff is registered, with Lancaster seeking the termination of the payments proceedings and the adjournment of a meeting at the end of June in which creditors will vote on the settlement proposal.
Lancaster says Steinhoff conceded at the hearing that it had not provided all the information demanded, but committed itself to disclosing any information the representative committee may ask for. Steinhoff also committed to provide the committee with “sufficient budget for it to have its own independent expert conduct an analysis of Steinhoff’s composition plan”.
Lancaster said the committee and the administrators “have confirmed that they will engage in discussions with Lancaster to analyse the flaws in, and objections to, the SoP (suspension of payment) and Steinhoff’s composition plan in its now proposed form, as raised by L101”.
In view of these and other commitments made on the day, Lancaster had withdrawn its application, while “reserving the right to resume the application and submit new further complaints at any time.”
In a statement on Tuesday, Naidoo said: “We continue to insist that Steinhoff must provide claimants fair and equitable treatment. It is in the interest of all creditors, including L101, that the alleged merits of the composition plan can be reviewed by all creditors with access to all relevant financial information, which, as was confirmed on 4 June, Steinhoff has not been willing to share with L101 so far.”
Steinhoff had on Monday said Lancaster would not proceed with the matter. “During and by the conclusion of the hearing, Lancaster withdrew all of its requests,” it said in a statement. “As a consequence, these requests are no longer pending and do not need to be resolved by the court.”
Hamilton BV, a litigation-funding company based in Ireland which is seeking more than R16bn on behalf of retail investors, asset managers and pension funds in SA, also says the proposed settlement is unfair and inequitable as it gives undue preference to a select group of creditors.
With Tiisetso Motsoeneng
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