The defunct Crane Bank Limited is reported to have been sold at a mere Shs200 billion shillings, however, revelation indicate the Shs200 billion where for liabilities as the bank was taken for free.
The new revelation is that the Shs200 billion is ‘liability fees’ and this makes the whole transaction questionable in respect to the actual sale price.
More drama however ensued as DFCU Bank in mid-August announced net profits of Shs114 billion for the first half of 2017 year, up from Shs23 billion in the same period the preceding year, 2016. So this profit indicates the bank was sold and sound by the time it was given to DFCU. However, in the free market place, there value attached to the property but for CBL it this wasn’t the case.
The DFCU Bank attributed the profit majorly to the acquisition of Crane Bank: the company’s balance sheet jumped to Shs3.05trn as of June 2017, up from Shs1.8 trillion in December 2016, in just six months.
Indeed, before its sale to rival DFCU Bank, Crane Bank had lent clients loans worth Sh700 billion as of October 20, 2016, according to a compiled financial report of the bank, meaning that it was a key player in the country’s economy even as it was sold.
And, according to the leaked details of the customers contained in a book of the former Crane Bank bosses, the asset base of Shs1.2 trillion at the time had bailed out 429 clients including individuals and companies, even as its liabilities stood at Shs1.3 trillion against total equity and reserves of Shs130.9 billion.
Interestingly, as more information is being revealed, it has been established that BoU has shares in DFCU, and a leading commercial law attorney told Eagle Online on condition of anonymity, since he couldn’t speak freely because of the ongoing litigation, that as more comes to light, it makes the whole transaction look like it was a “giveaway of Crane Bank Limited to DFCU by Bank of Uganda”.
“Those of us who are in the legal profession, we are eagerly waiting to see how this case turns out because the little information being revealed in the media makes it look like Crane Bank Limited was given out priceless” said the youthful lawyer.
Meanwhile, in a document, the shareholders accuse the Central Bank and DFCU of among others; taking over the CBL leases without the knowledge and consent of the lease guarantors; failing to value Crane Bank assets to determine their market value before sale and, collusion to defraud the taxpayer and the Crane Bank shareholders, among them tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia.
DFCU is partly owned by the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), a British government-owned company, together with Rabo Development from the Netherlands and NorFinance from Norway, who are shareholders in Arise B.V together with Norfund, a Norwegian government-owned Private Equity firm and FMO, the Dutch Development Bank.
So who are the shareholders? Dfcu is partly owned by the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) a British government-owned company, together with other foreign firms like Rabo Development from the Netherlands and NorFinance from Norway who are shareholders in Arise B.V together with Norfund, a Norwegian government owned Private Equity firm and FMO, the Dutch Development Bank.
DFCU Shareholding percentages
Arise BV 58.71 per cent
CDC Group of the United Kingdom 9.97 per cent
National Social Security Fund (Uganda) 7.69 per cent
Kimberlite Frontier Africa Naster Fund 6.15 per cent
2 undisclosed Institutional Investors 3.22 per cent
SSB-Conrad N. Hilton Foundation 0.98 per cent
Vanderbilt University 0.87 per cent
Blakeney Management 0.63 per cent
Bank of Uganda Staff Retirement Benefits Scheme 0.59 per cent
Retail investors 11.19 per cent
BoU staff retirement benefit scheme is 0.59 percent
