By our reporter
Reports coming through indicate that the chief executive of Arise BV, the majority shareholder in DFCU bank with 58.71% ownership, has resigned with immediate effect.
Mr Deepak Malik’s resignation comes a day after reports that Britain’s Commonwealth Development Cooperation Group (CDC), the second largest investor in DFCU had opted out of the bank’s ownership.
It is understood that CDC walked out due to their assessments pointing to poor corporate governance procedures followed when DFCU was acquiring the defunct Ugandan financial institution, Crane Bank ltd.
Arise BV is yet to reveal the reasons for letting Mr Malik go, however, our sources indicate that the aftermath of Crane bank acquisition is shaking the centre of DFCU’s ownership as well as the bank’s management led by Managing Director Juma Kisaame.
Who is Mr. Deepak Malik?
Bloomberg.com, a media company which covers business and finance extensively, has a profile of Mr. Deepak Malik as follows.
Mr. Deepak Malik serves as the Chief Executive at Arise B.V. Mr. Malik serves as the Head of Department – Financial Institutions and part of the management team at Norfund. He joined Norfund as an Investment Director in 2003 where his efforts were spent in promoting Norwegian investments in Southern Africa and the region.
Mr. Malik was previously the Regional Director of South Africa at Norfund. He has started his career at SIEMENS (India) in 1982, after which he opened a private consultancy in 1984, specialising in financial services. He was then appointed as audit manager for KPMG in 1988, following which he became Financial Director for ZAL HOLDINGS (Ltd) – a subsidiary of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Limited.
In 1993 he became the Financial Controller for Mulungushi Investments and in 1994 was appointed as the Manager Operations Accounting. In 1995 he was appointed General Manager for Group Procurement. Mr. Malik was responsible for the regional office for Africa. He served as an Acting Head of Department Financial institutions and SME at Norfund.
He also served as the Regional Representative at The Industrialization Fund for Developing Countries, of Denmark. Previously, Mr. Malik’s vast experience included his roles as a Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at the Development Bank of Zambia, as a General Manager at Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines and as an Audit Manager at KPMG. He serves as the Chairman of AfriCap Microfinance Investment Company.
He is on the Board of Directors of various companies, including financial institutions and private equity funds. He is a Non-Executive Director of Real People (Pty) Ltd. since July 20, 2011.
He serves as a Non-Executive Director at Equity Group Holdings Limited. He is a Non-Executive Director of Equity Group Holdings Limited since April 29, 2015. He had served as a Non-Executive Director of Real People Investment Holdings Limited since May 28, 2015. He served as a Board Member of Norwegian Microfinance Initiative. He served as a Director of NMBZ Holdings Limited and NMB Bank Limited from January 31, 2014 to October 22, 2014.
He is also the Head of Financial Institutions Department of Norfund, covering Africa, South Asia and Central America. He is also part of the Executive Management team of Norfund. He has over 35 years’ experience and has a diverse experience in general management, development banking, banking, private equity, audit, microfinance, corporate and public finance, project financing, financial restructuring and privatization in emerging markets, mining, procurement and financial management.
His specialization is working with multilateral/bilateral financial institutions and he also has an extensive knowledge of developing countries. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) from the University of Delhi, India.
Crane Bank proving too difficult to swallow
Bank of Uganda sold Crane Bank to DFCU in a secret deal which only revealed a buyout of sh200 billion when the bank had assets in the excess of a trillion shilling.
The deal however was sealed against basic business practice, including excluding the shareholders of Crane bank. It later emerged DFCU was continuing to pay Bank of Uganda money after loan collection which was part of the unwritten deal.
Mr. Deepak Malik might be acting under pressure following the tight grip on finantial sector, including international organizations following up on fraud.
CDC, a British firm which set up shop in Uganda in 1964 and has invested in DFCU since 2000 sold its stake however, URA, Uganda’s tax body has not been notified about the move.
CDC owns up to 9.97% of Dfcu with US$15.1 million in equity and US$10m as subordinated loan.
The owners of Dfcu include Arise BV (majority shareholder with 58.71% ownership), CDC Group of the United Kingdom (9.97%), National Social Security Fund (Uganda)-7.69%, Kimberlite Frontier Africa Naster Fund (6.15%), SSB-Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (0.98%), Vanderbilt University (0.87%) and Blakeney Management (0.63%). As well as Bank of Uganda Staff Retirement Benefits Scheme (0.59%), Retail investors (11.19%) and two undisclosed Institutional Investors (3.22%).
There must be more in the kitchen
Dfcu bank enters a critical stage as the future looks uncertain after majority shareholder Arise B.V let its CEO leave.
CDC together with other foreign firms like Arise B.V together with Norfund, the Dutch Development Bank, acquired a sizable percentage of shares in DFCU Bank.
DFCU records show an impressive Shs127.6 billion net profit in the year ended 31 December 2017, up from Shs46.2 billion registered in 2016. This means that the profit increased by a record Shillings 81.4 billion.
The bank’s shareholders CDC of Britain and the others from Norway, Netherlands made abnormal profits when proposed dividends increased to Shs 51 billion in 2017 up from Shs 18.5 billion in 2016 and it is suspected that with such abnormal profits the CDC is pulling out in order to avoid paying tax or make losses in case Uganda’s economy continues to fail as the shilling stifles.
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