THE High Court in Johannesburg has ruled in favour of more than 12,000 aggrieved investors in the drawn-out Orthotouch case, in which Hans Klopper is the business rescue practitioner.<\/p>\n
The case goes back to September 2011 when the Highveld Syndication companies fell into a state of business rescue and Klopper was appointed to oversee the process.<\/p>\n
A short while later, and in a rescue plan facilitated by Klopper, property mogul Nic Georgiou, through his company Orthotouch, agreed to buy some of the syndication properties and repay the more than 18,300 aggrieved investors their collective R4.6bn investment, plus interest.<\/p>\n
But the rescue plan floundered and by 2014 the repayments had dwindled when it became apparent the plan was not feasible.<\/p>\n
At that stage more than 12,000 investors had come together to institute a class action, under the banner Highveld Syndication Action Group, represented by the law firm Theron & Partners.<\/p>\n
However, around the same time a call was made by Orthotouch to restructure the repayments and a scheme of arrangement was proposed between Orthotouch and its creditors under section 155 of the Companies Act. This was proposed as an alternative to liquidation.<\/p>\n
It now transpires that the agreement was sanctioned at a meeting attended by only a fraction of the investors, estimated to number about 3,000. But Klopper insisted on Tuesday that all protocols were followed and that the sanction was legitimate.<\/p>\n
“But it was brought without our knowledge,” claims Helgard Hencke of Theron & Partners. “Had we known it was going ahead, we would have opposed it.”<\/p>\n
When they tried to, they learned the scheme also prevented investors from taking any legal action against Orthotouch, of which Klopper is a director.<\/p>\n
The Highveld Syndication Action Group filed a court application to set the scheme of arrangements aside, but they were met at every turn with technical obstacles laid down by Orthotouch.<\/p>\n
The recent judgment, handed down on May 25, has cleared their path and has allowed them to proceed with their application.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s just a stepping stone,” says Hancke. “But we have won this round and we can now focus on setting the application aside.”<\/p>\n
Klopper must provide the court with proof of the required number of signatures or votes by June 6.<\/p>\n
Publisher: Business Day |\u00a0<\/a>Fiona Forde | 1 June 2016<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY FIONA FORDE\u00a0 2016-06-01 05:42:47.0 THE High Court in Johannesburg has ruled in favour of more than 12,000 aggrieved investors in the drawn-out Orthotouch case, in which Hans Klopper is the business rescue practitioner. The case goes back to September 2011 when the Highveld Syndication companies fell into a state of business rescue and Klopper… <\/p>\n