Trafigura and Gunvor SA to supply oil to Zambia

By John Chola Now the Zambian government is to negotiate with two international oil supplying companies Trafigura and Gunvor to supply oil. Energy Permanent Secretary George Zulu says the ministry has been allowed to enter into negotiations with the two companies by the Zambia Public Procurement Authority-ZPPA. Zulu has however pointed out that the move does not mean that the two firms have been awarded tenders to supply fuel to Zambia. Ends.

Zambian stock exchange orders Shoprite Group to pay local shareholders SA R7.4 million (K5.2 billion).

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. The Lusaka Stock Exchange has publicly censured Shoprite Holdings and its subsidiary Shoprite Checkers for breaching rules governing for listing of securities on LuSE in relation to the declaration of dividends. According to information available at the Lusaka bourse, the listing committee of the LuSE board resolved that the Shoprite Group collectively breached rules 3.1 and 3.28 in relation to non-payment of the dividends as earlier declared by the defaulter. This was resolved on May 16 this year. The committee considered the matter in the wake of the Shoprite Group failure to honour their November 16 2011 declaration made during the Annual General Meeting undertaking to pay dividends which were due in September last year and April this year. The committee had the resolution in exercise of its powers provided in section 1 of the Listing Rules and “hereby directs SHL to remedy its breaches by way of effecting full settlement of the dividends outstanding to the LuSE shareholders within 14 days of this notice” issued on May 24 this year. “The Lusaka Stock Exchange publicly censures Shoprite Holdings Limited (SHL) and its subsidiary Shoprite Checkers Limited (SCL) and their Directors for breaches of the rules governing the listing of securities on the LuSE and the undertaking with regards to Directors given to the Exchange in the form set out in schedule 7 of the Listing Rules,” the censure reads in part. As it has turned out, a section of shareholders who purchased shares on LuSE were duly issued by SCL in Zambia were not paid. The total amount the LuSE shareholders are owed is SA R7.4 million (K5.2 billion). In September they were entitled to R1.65 while in April this year Shoprite Group should have paid R1.09 for each of the 2.7 million shares that the transfer agents sold on the Zambian market. The sale was conducted through a secondary floatation as SHL primarily issued the shares to its subsidiary SCL making the transaction secondary on the Lusaka market. The Zambian media had reported in March the shareholders were contemplating seeking legal redress to compel Shoprite Group to pay them their dues . The LuSE notes that the Shoprite Group instead paid other shareholders to the exclusion of the Zambia-based shareholders who bought the shares in the ordinary course of trading business. It has been established that only Namibia and South Africa shareholders were paid their dividends while their Zambian counterparts have to this day not been paid. The grounds of the censure notes; “the sale, following which the LuSE shareholders acquired ownership of shares in SHL, was authorized and sanctioned by SCL through its appointed agents, Lewis Nathan , acting as its transfer secretary. “The LuSE shareholders purchased the shares as bona fide purchasers in open market without notice of any defect in the authority of the transfer agent appointed by SCL, and the transfer agent was at all times [presumed to have ostensible or apparent authority to sell the shares at the price at which they were offered,” the LuSE media release reads. The LuSE also directed that Shoprite Group contention that the mandate to pay the dividends were subject to a court action as null and void. The Lusaka bourse has therefore noted in its censure that the court dispute has nothing to do with the right of shareholders to be paid their dividends and thus the default could not be sustained by the matter in court in the absence of an order stating so. Shoprite Group had obtained an injunction and freezing order against its transfer secretary who have however successfully challenged the order in the Kitwe High Court. Similarly, the transfer secretary quashed a Shoprite Group originated complaint through a Lusaka High Court Judicial Review following the Drug Enforcement Commission seizure of the same accounts at which were at issue in the Kitwe court. While legal experts expected DEC to file a complaint showing origination and its attendant indictment documentation, the Attorney General’s chambers could not as the Commission never provided such affidavit. This prompted Justice Christine Phiri to order the defreezingf the accounts and stated that the action was illogical and that the action was beyond the scope of investigations. While alive the fact that a Judicial Review has no effect of ‘arresting” criminal investigations, DEC has however failed to challenge the judgment which also names some investigations officer, Frederick Chishala of having had lied on oath in a sworn affidavit.