T
he High Court Commercial Division in Blantyre yesterday gave investment and portfolio managers Alliance Capital Limited eight days to settle in full K373 513 566.31 it owes one of its clients.
In his ruling delivered yesterday, Judge Masauko Msungama ordered Alliance Capital to pay the full amount owed to the investors by March 31 2021.
He said he had arrived at the determination after considering that there was no information on how the average monthly sum of K500 million, which Alliance Capital Limited claims it collects from its debtors, was being utilised.
“This leaves the court with no choice but to conclude that it is possible for the judgement debtor to pay off the judgement at once using this source,” Msungama said.
The judge added that despite the judgement debtor collecting the K500 million monthly basis, there had so far been no attempt on its part to pay anything to the judgement creditor.
Stated Msungama: “On several occasions, the judgement debtor has undertaken to settle the amounts owing but no payment has been made to date.
“Also, there is no evidence that the judgement debtor is taking any serious action to collect debt owing, to it in order to place itself in a comfortable position whereby it would easily settle its debts.”
The firm was dragged to court by a Blantyre-based family over a breach of contract at the maturity of their investment.
According to court documents, Alliance Capital Limited, which provides portfolio and investment management services for individual, corporate and institutional investors, accessed cash from the investors, but failed to liquidate money from their debtors to pay the family.
The court documents further show that the agreement was that Alliance Capital Limited would invest the money in short-term investments which could be liquidated within a short period.
However, court documents The Nation has seen show that on December 16 2020, the firm, through its acting chief executive officer Gift Banda, wrote the family and committed to repay the money to the investors in January 2021.
But the investor’s claim filed at the court on February 12 2021 indicates that the company failed to repay the money and instead proposed a payment schedule of K100 million by May 2021 with the balance to be offset between June and August 19 2021.
Court documents The Nation has seen show that the investors, Chengaikane Kahumbe, Natasha Kahumbe and Tupali Kahumbe, are claiming over K373 million plus interest and collection costs from the firm.
