Crane Bank sale puts DFCU shareholders in harsh spotlight
The rushed sale of Crane Bank to DFCU by Bank of Uganda last year has put a new spotlight on the shareholders of DFCU.
Legal experts say the DFCU shareholders stand to be sued over their role in hastened purchase of Crane Bank.
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The sale agreement has already drawn criticism from legal experts with many pointing out the unfair terms.
For instance, while Bank of Uganda said it injected Shs 200 billion to save Crane Bank, it emerged that the bank was sold to DFCU for a song.
The agreement does not state the value of assets and liabilities assumed by DFCU, legal experts say, neither does it indicate the amount of money paid by DFCU.
This could expose the DFCU shareholders to legal challenges by shareholders of Crane Bank. Already some of the shareholders of Crane Bank are lining up a suit to challenge what they deem as "unfair terms" under which the bank was taken.
Who owns DFCU?
According to documents tendered in court, among the shareholders of DFCU are staff of Bank of Uganda through the central bank’ staff retirement benefits scheme. These own 0.59%.
Analysts say this is intriguing considered the bank’s central role in the sale of Crane Bank.
The biggest shareholder DFCU is Arise BV with 58.71%. Arise BV comprises Rabo Development from the Netherlands and NorFinance from Norway.
DFCU is also partly owned by the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) a British government-owned company whose stake is 9.97%.
Uganda’s National Social Security Fund (NSSF) owns 7.69%; Kimberlite Frontier Africa Naster Fund 6.15%; SSB-Conrad N. Hilton Foundation 0.98%; Vanderbilt University 0.87%; Blakeney Management 0.63%; retail investors 11.19% and 2,000 undisclosed institutional investors who own 3.22%.
