Supreme court bans UNICOF's case against ADB IPO

quist

August 20, 2015 8:35 AM

The supreme court on Wednesday found it necessary to place the ban on UNICOF's case after the legal counsel of UNICOF withdrew the case.

The Supreme Court has banned the Union of Commerce, Industrial and Finance(UNICOF) from filing any other case in an attempt to halt the Agricultural Development Bank's Initial Public Offering.

UNICOF filed a case at the supreme court in August to place an interlocutory injunctions on ADB's IPO on grounds that the Bank failed to follow due process in initiating the process to float some 74 million shares. UNICOF filed the case at the Supreme Court after the Accra High Court threw out the union's initial attempts to halt the IPO.

The supreme court on Wednesday found it necessary to place the ban on UNICOF's case after the legal counsel of UNICOF withdrew the case.

According to UNICOF's legal counsel, Charles Bawuah Dua, in an interview with said " we brought the application to the court believing the necessity of the case. But we have agreed now that the best is for the employees to withdraw the case. As a lawyer the best to do is to represent the interests of my clients, and this is what they want. All we sought to do was to make sure due process is followed in laucnching the IPO."

When asked about the supreme court's ban, Lawyer Dua said " We are not embarrassed by the ban. We can still fight the IPO if we want, just not in the supreme court. There are other courts we can go to. But as I said, we have withdrawn the suit".

Meanwhile the Agricultural Development Bank is urging all investors to patronize the re-launch of their IPO now that they have the green light. The head of ADB's legal counsel, Maxwell Kofi Ohene says

" Its a big day for us. Management can begin the money making process for the bank which will see it grow stronger and bigger, that others wanted to halt. There wasn't much merit in UNICOF's case, and we sought to draw their attention to it, but they were adamant. Now that they have received good counsel, we hope they hold their peace now, and leave the IPO to go on. I will encourage all investors to feel confident in patronizing the shares when we re- launch the IPO."

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