Dfcu foreign owners order MD Kisaame to sit at table with Sudhir’s Meera Investments

By our reporter

Information reaching our desk indicates that Dfcu Bank foreign shareholders have opted to settle a suit filed against the commercial bank by Meera Investments outside court.

Dfcu is partly owned by the Commonwealth Development Corporation (9.97%) 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 (majority shareholder with 58.71% ownership) together with Norfund, a Norwegian government owned Private Equity firm and FMO, the Dutch Development Bank.

According to Chimpreports, an online news site, the foreign shareholders recently jetted into Uganda to establish the safe ground on how the suit which was filed by Sudhir Ruparelia owned Meera Investments.

The property development company dragged Dfcu Bank to Land Division of the High Court, seeking to reclaim its 46 branches that were allegedly acquired illegally following the dissolution of Crane Bank.

While in Uganda, the shareholders held key meetings with a reputable international law firm on the Meera case with the main aim of finding out it their bank had any chance of winning the case.

Upon review of Meera Investments’ grounds of the case with an independent law firm, Dfcu’s foreign shareholders reportedly advised the Bank’s Managing Director Juma Kisaame to settle the matter out of court.

It seems the shareholders were informed by top legal brains that Dfcu stood a high chance of losing the case and should therefore find a better way of resolving the dispute.

“An amicable settlement was agreed as the best option in this matter. Kisaame will have to engage Meera Investments on the same,” said an official according to Chimpreports.

Meanwhile, in case court agrees with the submissions of Meera Investments, all the 46 countrywide Dfcu Bank branches worth millions of dollars will be closed and reverted to them, leaving the bank without premises to run the countrywide branches.

The branches are located in Rukungiri, Kasese, Busia, Kawempe, Nkumba, Entebbe, Kireka, Nabingo, Masaka, Jinja, Gulu, Mukono, Ntinda, Mengo, Iganga, Malaba, Hoima, Kamwenge, Kabale, Ibanda, Rushere, Mbarara, Kabarole, Soroti, Kawempe, Bugolobi, Nateete, Masindi, Mulago, Nakulabye and Bushenyi.