Trustco shares soar after it wins right to hearing in battle with JSE over suspension

The order that was issued provided that pending the outcome of the review application, the JSE be interdicted and restrained from suspending Trustco's listing. Picture: Timothy Bernard

The order that was issued provided that pending the outcome of the review application, the JSE be interdicted and restrained from suspending Trustco's listing. Picture: Timothy Bernard

Published Aug 10, 2022

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Diversified Namibian company Trustco Group Holdings’ share price leapt 35.56 percent higher to 61 cents, after it announced on Monday that a South African High Court had granted it the right to review the JSE’s decision to suspend the company's listing on the bourse.

The review application is set down for a hearing on September 5.

Trusco approached the High Court to prevent the JSE from enforcing its issued suspension decision.

In November 2020, the JSE found that Trustco did not comply with the listings requirements in relation to its annual financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2019, and interim results for the six months ended September 30, 2019.

At the time, the JSE directed Trustco to take steps to rectify its non-compliance. The JSE then moved to delist the company's shares.

The Financial Services Tribunal (FST) dismissed Trustco's application to prevent the JSE from suspending its shares.

On Monday, Trustco said it became necessary to launch the application on an urgent basis, to prevent the JSE from enforcing its decision.

The company noted that this was the second urgent application won by Trustco against the JSE in the High Court.

"Trustco simultaneously filed an application against the decision by the JSE to suspend Trustco's listing, and Trustco seeks that the JSE's suspension decision is itself suspended," it said.

According to Trustco, in determining whether Trustco's prima facie right to this urgent interdict, the court "peeked" at the grounds for review.

Trustco's grounds for review inter alia included; the JSE's director in the issuer regulation division, Andre Visser, lacked the authority to make the suspension decision.

It also submitted that the JSE did not follow its own listings requirements; and the composition of the FST - a retired judge, a senior counsel, and an attorney - prima facie lacked the accounting experience required.

In her ruling, Judge Nicolene Janse van Nieuwenhuizen said: "The grounds of review are all deserving of a proper hearing in due course and I am satisfied that Trustco has asserted a prima facie right to fair and just administrative action".

The order that was issued provided that pending the outcome of the review application, the JSE be interdicted and restrained from suspending Trustco's listing.

The JSE was ordered to pay the costs of the urgent court application, including the costs of two counsels.

On the ruling the JSE said: "The honourable Judge Janse van Nieuwenhuizen delivered her judgment in which she ordered that the JSE is interdicted and restrained from implementing the JSE decision, the Tribunal's ruling and the suspension decision pending the outcome of the Review Application".

Meanwhile, Trustco is involved in another legal battle where it is sued for N$357.1 million over unpaid loans in England.

According to reports, Trustco has indicated that it is appealing the judgment.

If Trustco loses the appeal, it might lose its subsidiary, Elisenheim Property Development Company Limited, which guaranteed those loans.

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