ADB IPO: Supreme Court awards cost against UNICOF

The Supreme Court yesterday warned the Union of Commerce, Industry and Finance workers (UNICOF) never to file any case in the court regarding the Initial Public Offer (IPO) of the Agricultural Development Bank (ABD). The court also awarded cost of GH₵10,000 against UNICOF out of which GH₵5,000 will go ADB and the remaining GH₵5,000 to the Attorney General�s Department. These were decisions were taken against UNICOF by court of the union withdrew a case it filed against ADB over the sale of the bank�s shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE). ADB which was forced to put the IPO on hold in July this year follows UNICOF�s suit has therefore said it would immediately resume the IPO following the ruling. UNICOF this withdrew the case it filed against the bank at the Supreme Court but did not give reasons for the withdrawal. UNICOF dragged ADB to the Supreme Court early this month barely 24 hours after an Accra high court threw out their earlier case against the bank seeking to place an injunction on the IPO. Case filed by UNICOF The suit filed by UNICOF sought an order of interlocutory injunction to restrain the defendant ADB, their agents, assigns, privies and or contractors from proceeding with continuing, or resuming the sale of the shares of the bank pending final determination of the suit filed at the court. The motion for an order of interlocutory injunction had ADB as the 1st defendant and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice as the 2nd defendant. According to UNICOF, the 1st Defendant which is ADB, failed to follow due process in preparing a prospectus to list on the GSE and sell more than 74 million existing shares with plans to issue more than 75 million additional shares. UNICOF also accused ADB�s management of perpetuating an illegality by signing two memoranda of understanding with two foreign companies for the allotment of a number of shares to those companies. The Union said the two agreements signed by ADB and the Norwegian Fund for Developing Countries to offer them 15% of the shares and Atlas Mara having acquired 25% respectively did not receive Parliamentary approval as an international transaction. UNICOF also wanted the Supreme Court to declare as unconstitutional the moves by ADB to list on the bourse and sell 40% of the company to foreign companies. It also wanted ADB to be restrained from going on with the IPO till the court case was concluded. UNICOF makes U-Turn But in a rather interesting turn of events lawyer for UNICOF yesterday announced in court it had withdrawn the suit and cited no reasons for the move. But lawyer for ADB Tony Lithur and that of the Attorney General Afriyie Ansah prayed the court to award 5 thousand cedis each for damages to their clients which the court granted. According to Tony Lithur UNICOF�s action was in bad faith and had wasted the time of all those involved in the case. He further argued that UNICOF�s action would affect the success of the bank�s IPO and also caused the bank to lose a number of its customers.