New revelations indicate Dfcu took Crane Bank for free

By our reporter

A few weeks back an agreement between Bank of Uganda and Dfcu Bank leaked and it indicated unbelievable irregularities in the takeover of Crane Bank.

The agreement indicated that Dfcu got a bank with assets valued at Sh1.3 trillion for just shs200 billion.

Unfortunately the leaked agreement shows that the shs200 billion was payment for liabilities.

The Agreement apparently does not state the amounts of money paid by Dfcu as a net purchase price; or the payment terms for monies, or the assets (outside branches) that Dfcu was taking over.

The agreement which excluded shareholders of Crane Bank contrary to the Financial Institutions Act, also did not itemize the list of assets acquired (save for leases).

Crane Bank was owned by Sudhir Ruparelia (28.83%), Ms Jyotsna Ruparelia (13.8%), their children Ms Sheena Ruparelia, Ms Meera Ruparelia and Mr Rajiv Ruparelia (1.99%), White Sapphire (47%), Jitendra Sanghani (4%) and Kampala businessman, Tom Mugenga (0.003%).

“This is very strange given that Crane Bank Limited’s total assets were worth Shs 1.3 trillion at the time of BOU’s takeover of the Bank, but the listed leases in the agreement were given an undervalued book value of only Shs 10bn,” the Crane Bank shareholders protested.

“In real sense, no money was paid for consideration of Crane Bank,” said a lawyer, adding, “World over banks can be sold for $1 as consideration. This was a fraudulent transaction which can be successfully challenged in courts of law.”

Dfcu last year bragged in a report to its shareholders that it got the assets of Crane Bank at a giveaway price.

To prove to its shareholders that this was a fat deal, Dfcu reported after three months of taking over the assets of Crane bank that its profits had jumped from Sh31 billion to Sh150 billion.

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