Telkom members’ register ‘held by Computershare’
The dispute could prove embarrassing for the telecommunications monopoly, and the Registrar of Companies has until now refused to register a special resolution allowing Telkom to buy back shares from the market.
The registrar is mulling over objections made by a shareholder, Adv Michael Alachouzos, over the existence of the register of members before that special resolution is registered.
Yesterday, Telkom said it had a register, which Computershare kept “on behalf of Telkom in electronic format”.
This comes amid confusing statements from within Telkom as to where the register is actually kept — with some officials saying it was kept at Telkom’s office in Pretoria.
Telkom said yesterday that the register reflected the “particulars of the class A and class B shareholders”, which are the “golden shares” held by government and the Public Investment Corporation.
It said the register also included details of all its registered shareholders and “is available for inspection”.
However, a group of shareholders — including Alachouzos — has been seeking to see this register, but has met with no success.
A number of Telkom shareholders, including an academic, Debbie Love, have signed affidavits saying they have been unable to get access to the register despite repeated attempts.
Although Telkom claimed yesterday that Computershare kept its register, an affidavit from attorney Keith Sutcliffe said a Computershare employee had told him that “there was no such (Telkom) register kept by the Computershare group”. Attorney Caterina Paraskevas also said in an affidavit that she was told by Computershare that there was no Telkom register of members at Computershare’s office.
Although Paraskevas was shown a list of beneficial shareholders by Computershare, she said this was not a proper register of members as defined by the Companies Act.
Telkom shares closed 0,36% higher at R139,50 yesterday.
Inet-Bridge || Discuss this article
Loading ...