Rolf Patel fights on: Press Corp, Cane Products case adjourned to December
The Malawi Supreme Court on Monday adjourned a case to December 3 on the matter of who is the genuine owner of the profit making company Presscane Company Limited between Press Corporation (PCL) and Cane Products Ltd (CPL).
PCL wants Supreme Court to overturn a ruling by the High Court of the commercial Division which ruled in 2014 that PCL has no shares in the company because their shares were turned into loans and paid back while CPL wants Supreme Court to incorporate Price Water Coopers report to form part of the ruling.
Cane Products Limited – which is owned by former Minister of energy and Mining Rolf Patel Himself, and his sons; Reuben, Stanley and James Patel – and Press Corporation Limited entered into Joint Venture Agreement in 2001 in which PCL was given a majority shares of 50.1 % against 49.9%.
During the time of this venture according to the court records Cane Products Limited had already established the company by investing heavily in capital assets.
Investigations which Price Water House made revealed that all PCL shares were turned into loans.
Judge Justice Frank Kapanda said he wants all preliminaries sorted out before starting the hearing of the actual appeal.
Kapanda who is presiding over the case alongside Justice Dunstan Mwaungulu and Judge Anthony Kamanga, told the court that he was not happy to note that there is lack of good preparation in terms of preliminaries.
“Today is 23 am giving you up to 3 December, 2015, to work on preliminaries so that there should not be unnecessary adjournments,” observed Kapanda.
Representing Press Corporation, lawyer Davis Njobvu objected to start full hearing arguing that there are insufficient documents to kick start the case.
But lawyer Justice Dzonzi who is representing Cane Products Limited stood and objected to claim by Njobvu arguing that there court ruling did not want the additional documentations to form part of the court proceedings because the appellants did not testify on over the same after the High court asked them to do so.
I live in CK and remember Patel family working hard on the land, there even borrowed tools from our family at Nchalo to kick start project n to demarcate boundary with Chiefs, i feel pity on them kulandidwa with big coorporations, Patels know who i am by wat iv written
So far Chikaonda has been smart, but his dog day like the cashgaters of Lilongwe will one day come.
Chikaonda is no different from Raphael Kasambara and Paul Mphwiyo.
People know of his thievery and believe you me, when you start hurting individuals who are trying to make a buck, evil ???? wil soon do same unto you. Need an example? Look what’s happening to them cashgaters.
Nkhani ili apa munthu wamba sangapange comment. Its too technical. Ine sindinatolepo kanthu. Komabe ndinene kuti inu a Khoti muonesese kuti Patel awine mlandu umeneu. Zikomo
I knew this as Patels company. Suddenly I started to see this being reported as a press company. I thought Patel sold it, the way Patel and Rubén worked hard for this company, Its sad that he could have lost it
Many people have lost company’s and property to this thieves at press.
Give Rolf and Rubén their company.
The good news is this case is being heard by the best judges in Malawi.
Interesting indeed.
Just go back and see what Patel did for cement venture in Kasungu. Choipa chitsata mwini
I also see the greediness of Press Corporation here, which is busy closing businesses that it deems loss making without any attempts to try turning them around as is normally done in other societies but wants to grab a profit-making entity just to report growth on businesses that are run privately. Chikaonda has been a worse CEO for PCL, when JT was running that conglomerate it used to sponsor a lot of sporting events among them Kamuzu Cup, Press Cup, and even footabll teams but with Chikaonda at the helm its closure upon closure of businesses and zero sponsorship on… Read more »
Chikaonda is a thief. In 2003 PressCane borrowed USD2 million from Standard Bank and he ordered the money transferred to PCL USD account at National Bank. Nobody knows what happened to the money but PressCane repaid Standard Bank and were told to journalized the amount in their books. Kodi inu a Njovu mumayenda ndi registrar Ndovi and she is busy assisting you to do the wrong things by trying to bring evidence through the back door. Mtambo and Mzikamanda already ruled that the documents which were withdrawn when PCL refused to testify cannot be part of appeal documents, is Ndovi… Read more »
that company belongs to Patel, he sweated for it. I remember him passing through ginnery corner everyday at around 10:30 pm coming from chikwawa going home to chigumula in the year 2000. At that time I was a student at poly and he was like my time keeper when studying in rooms 32 or 48 L. The unstable Malawian currency always leads to cost overruns for any project one takes. sometimes its a waste of time to plan for a project in Malawi, just do it as the funds permit. Do you remember the case of Kang’ombe building where the… Read more »
PCl made big mistakes in the case. They refused to testify and withdrew all witnesses and their statements and told Justice Mtambo to make a ruling based on what Patel had submitted. PCL thought that the company would be liquidated due to poor performance and disinvested in the company and they turned all their contributions into interest bearing loans in 2008. Guarantee fees was charged at 16.5%, this is theft. All in all by 2010, Presscane had fully repaid PCL their contribution which was Mk530 million plus interest of Mk732 million and guarantee fees amounting to Mk726 million. PWC did… Read more »