Regiments Capital, which has been mired in state capture allegations, has staved off liquidation for now, with its owners given the go ahead by the Johannesburg high court to sell off millions of rands of shares in Capitec bank.
On Wednesday judge Bashier Vally ordered that the company’s liquidators return to court in January to argue “why the winding up of Regiments Capital should not be set aside”.
The liquidators, Willem Venter and Kagiso Dinaka, have been ordered to appear in court on January 26 2021.
Regiments is being investigated by the state capture commission of inquiry, the Special Investigating Unit and the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigating Directorate for its alleged role in funnelling financial kickbacks to businesses linked to the Guptas from multi-billion rand deals with Transnet.
Last year the commission heard how former Transnet CFO and Gupta ally Anoj Singh irregularly appointed Regiments as transaction advisers in the scandal-riddled 1,064 locomotive deal.
Regiments was paid R305m for its role in structuring the deal, which was worth R32bn.
Last week Regiments owners Niven Pillay and Litha Nyhonyha launched an urgent application to set aside the company’s liquidation.
The duo have fought for the liquidation to be halted so that an unbundling transaction, involving the sale of the company’s Capitec shares which they own through the company, Coral Lagoon, can go ahead.
Pillay and Nyhonyha argued that if the unbundling deal did not go ahead, then by November 17, they would be slapped with a R238m capital gains tax penalty from Sars, which would stop them from paying their creditors.
Liquidators Venter and Dinaka have accused Regiments’s owners of trying to strip the company of its financial assets.
Vally, in issuing his order, said: “Pending the finalisation of the matter [unbundling] the liquidation proceedings are stayed until 29 January 2021.
“The unbundling transaction ... shall be implemented and conducted under the supervision of an independent attorney.
“The directors ... are authorised to take all steps necessary to give effect to the unbundling transaction.”
Vally said the funds generated from the unbundling had to be transferred into a trust account under the control of the independent attorney.
He forbade Pillay and Nyhonyha from paying out any of Regiments’s shareholders money from the unbundling or to devalue the shares’ value.
Vally also interdicted the duo’s trusts, Marcytouch and Ergold Properties, from “selling ... or disposing of any of Capitec’s shares that have been or will be received by them as part of the unbundling transaction”.
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