NDB unregistered shares to be sold

The owners of NDB Bank’s unregistered shares are negotiating with some parties to divest them, according to banking industry sources.

The bank has communicated with potential buyers on behalf of the owners, who are widely believed to be connected to controversial multilevel network marketing company, GoldQuest. “NDB has found a process where they can legally validate a sale by these unidentified owners to a party who will establish their identity,” a NDB source told The Sunday Times FT.
He said that by next year, the deal should be through. When both NDB and National Development Bank merged last year to form NDB Bank, GoldQuest sold its 30 percent to three unidentified buyers, at roughly 10 percent each to comply with the Central Bank’s single ownership legislation of 10 percent. But NDB has not been able to establish their identities and withheld registration of the shares.

Nihal Welikala, CEO of NDB Bank, asked whether GoldQuest held any shares in the bank and why certain shares remained unregistered, said that no shares have been registered or were awaiting registration in the name of GoldQuest in NDB Bank. “Certain shares are purported to have been bought by purchasers who have not provided to us sufficient details of the beneficial ownership of the shares. We have therefore been unable to ascertain, as we are required to do by the Banking Act and our Articles of Association, whether they are in compliance with the rule which limits ownership in the Bank to 10 percent of issued capital, whether held directly, indirectly, through nominees or by acting in concert with others,” he said, adding that by law the bank cannot register these shares until these requirements are satisfied.