Presidential directive to Central Bank on GKCC women depositors plea
The Presidential Secretariat, in a new turn of events, has directed the Central Bank (CB) to consider the grievances and suggestions put forward by a group of disgruntled women depositors of Golden Key Credit Card Company (GK) and take necessary future action towards alleviating the sufferings of depositors.
This directive was issued in a letter sent to the CB Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal by Presidential Senior Assistant Secretary Medha Bemmulla in response to an appeal made by the newly formed GK Disgruntled Women Depositors Association recently.
Pushpa De Silva, convener of the association told the Business Times that they have informed President Rajapaksa that the CB’s new payment plan has confined the repayments of depositors to 41 per cent although it could easily have paid over 50 per cent of their deposits in cash realising assets of local and foreign assets of GK, former directors of the company, as well as of Lalith Kotelawala and his wife Sicille Kotelawala.
In their letter sent to the president, they have brought to his notice that a sum of over Rs. 10 billion could be realised by transferring the cash value of shares of CIESOT Pvt Ltd and Pictet & Cie, a Swiss company which has a 11 per cent stake in Ceylinco Insurance in voting stock and a small amount in non-voting stock.
The Supreme Court recently ordered that the shares held by Lalith Kotelawala in CIESOT be transferred to GK Credit Card Co Ltd (GKCC) SPV (special purpose vehicle), which is a company appointed on a court directive.
This shareholding is of immense value to Golden Key depositors as CIESOT owns 22.8 per cent of Ceylinco Insurance PLC.
The court directed the chairman of GKCC SPV to investigate the share transfer of Pictet & Cie and submit a report within a month.
Separately, shares held in the individual names of Mr. Kotelawala and Ms. Kotelawala in other companies have also been ordered to be transferred to the SPV for the benefit of Golden Key depositors.
Ms. De Silva also alleged that the SPV is spending over Rs. 1.5 million a month from depositors funds and also paid a sum of Rs. 8.5 million by a cheque from the Bank of Ceylon current account of the SPV to a private bank to release a mortgage of a property belonged to former director of GK Kavan Perera.
Former GK All Depositors Association Secretary Malcolm De Silva told the Business Times that the SPV directors are now trying to appoint its chairman and four other directors to the CIESOT Pvt Ltd without taking action to get a high price for this company shares for the benefit of depositors.
But a SPV director denied this attempt claiming that they taking measures to realise all the money from the sale of assets of GK directors in accordance with the court order.
However Mr. De Silva alleged that the SPV has failed to appoint a GK monitoring committee to carry out the work of SPV in a transparent manner on a Supreme Court order.
The court also ordered the transfer of 199,500 shares of Certis Holdings which was found to be owned by Lalith Kotelawala to GKCCCL SPV.
Under “Phase 3″ of the new payment plan, 1986 depositors were repaid more than Rs. 190 million and the balance amounting to Rs. 500 million will be paid to the other depositors by March 31, the SPV director said.
Many depositors who have deposits less than Rs.1.5 million told the Business Times that they have yet to receive the 3rd payment of Rs 100,000 or less from the SPV in accordance with the new payment plan.