Gold Circle’s long-running legal battle with Phumelela Gaming & Leisure Limited over its ownership of, and revenue streams emanating from, its investments on the Isle of Man, look set to remain unresolved until well into 2022.
It is now well documented that in May 2020, Phumelela Gaming and Leisure Limited was placed in business rescue.
John Evans, pictured above, was appointed business rescue practitioner of Phumelela and on 1 September 2020, the creditors of the beleagured company voted to adopt a business rescue plan.
Amongst others, the plan contemplated the sale by Phumelela of 100% of the issued shares in Phumelela Gold International Limited (PGI, a company registered in the Isle of man) to Mary Oppenheimer Daughters (Pty) Ltd (MOD).
What is thought to be common knowledge in the industry – but since disputed – is that Phumelela owns 61% of the shares in PGI, and Gold Circle owns and is entitled to claim ownership of 39%.
When Gold Circle established that the business rescue practitioner intended to sell Gold Circle’s shares in PGI, Gold Circle rushed to Court in Johannesburg to interdict the process on an urgent basis. The Judge held that the case lacked urgency and refused to hear it.
Ultimately BRP formally rejected Gold Circle’s claim to its shares in PGI. This rejection came after months of representations and negotiations.
Some sense eventually prevailed and all parties agreed on an arbitration process to adjudicate the dispute.
Judge Johan Kriegler was nominated and accepted to be the Arbitrator for the proceedings which were to have commenced on 11 October 2021 for a five day hearing.
The Sporting Post requested an update from Mr Evans after numerous enquiries from our readers last week.
A spokesman, Iain Stockill, advised that Evans was on leave and is back later this week.
“His monthly update report will be out at the end of the week and I have no doubt he’ll update stakeholders on the dispute,” he concluded.
Gold Circle recently informed Members that regrettably due to time constraints, late and non-discovery of documentation by Phumelela, and the determination that the dispute would not be completed in the time-frame, the arbitration has been postponed to 24 April 2022 for eight consecutive days.
The KZN racing operator says that, whilst disappointing, given the circumstances, this was the best outcome for the company.
As at 30 September 2021 Phumelela holds R238 million which belongs to Gold Circle.
