Kwesi Adu Martey, the Lawyer for majority Shareholders for UniCredit Company Limited, Ghana, has stated that the ruling by the Appeal Court means that shareholding has been restored. He thus indicated that management of UniCredit will have to decide on how to retrieve assets of the company.

According to the lawyer, shareholders of the company can now have full control of the company pending the outcome of an appeal, that’s if the Central Bank decides to go ahead after it has given an indication to do so.

“The ruling means that my client’s Shareholding has been restored because the court has reverted UniCredit back to the position before the 16 of August 2019.”
Kwesi Adu Martey

On how the company will retrieve the numerous assets of UniCredit before the revocation of its license, the lawyer indicated that any other move after the judgment will be taken by the management.

“My client is the Shareholder of UniCredit and my client cannot comment on some of those things. It will depend on the management of UniCredit to decide what to do with the judgment. The Shareholder will have to meet and decide on what to do with their company.”
Kwesi Adu Martey

Mr. Adu Martey explained saying, “Because obviously the receiver that was appointed by the Bank of Ghana has taken certain steps and if those steps will have to reverse before uniCredit will become operational they will have to be taken.”

The Appeal Court on Thursday July 7, 2022 has quashed the revocation of uniCredit-Ghana by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) three years ago.

Lawyer Adu Martey, meanwhile, commended the court for the decision adding that the “the rule of law has been upheld.”

Background of the Revocation

The Court of Appeal on July 7, 2022 has declared the decision of the Bank of Ghana to revoke the license of unicredit as an unlawful exercise of its powers.

The Court has therefore, quashed the revocation of UniCredit Ghana Limited’s license which was contained in Bank of Ghana’s notice dated 16th August, 2019.

The unanimous decision of the Court of Appeal chaired by Justice Suubaareh with Justice Merley Afua Wood and Justice Janapare A. Bartels as panel members was delivered on Thursday, July 7, 2022.

However, the Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court presided over by Justice Gifty Adjei Addo had in 2020 dismissed an application for Judicial Review filed by HODA Holding against BoG following the revocation of the operating license.

Dissatisfied with the decision, lawyers of uniCredit filed an appeal against the judgement of the High Court.

It can be recalled that the Central Bank, on Friday, August 16, 2019, revoked the licences of 23 insolvent savings and loans companies and finance houses including uniCredit, pursuant to Section 123 (1) of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930). This provision requires the Bank of Ghana to revoke the licence of a Bank or Specialised Deposit-Taking Institution (SDI) where the Bank of Ghana determines that the institution is insolvent.