The official liquidator of the 53 defunct fund management companies, Jemima Oware, has stated that payment of bailout funds for the first batch of investors of the companies, whose licenses were revoked by the Securities and Exchanges Commission, SEC, has begun.

According to her, the payment will be to investors of only 20 of the fund management companies that have been cleared by the court for their liquidation.

The first batch of investors is made of 170 investors out of the 2,850 investors who had submitted their Redemption requests.

A statement issued by the official liquidator who doubles as the Registrar-General, also noted that the bailout programme is being implemented via a special purpose entity, the Amalgamated Mutual Fund PLC, which is being managed by GCB Capital Limited with funding from the government.

She also noted the establishment of the fund paves way for claims of over 2,850 investors amounting to GHS 563.65 million.

However, payments to the first batch of 170 investors amounted to GHS 7.77 million.

“The payment follows the successful validation of claims and the completion of creditor meetings with the Registrar-General – with investors of the first 20 Fund Management Companies. The bailout program is being implemented via a special purpose entity , the Amalgamated Mutual Fund Plc (The AM Fund) established and managed by GCB Capital Limited,” the statement said.

She also stated that the remaining investors are yet to get their monies but have gone through the validation process and received a claim ID. They are also to set up an account on the Registrar General’s Department’s website.

“The Official Liquidator advises all investors who have gone through the validation and have received their unique Claim I.D.’s to now go to bailout now go to bailoutapp.rgd.gov.gh to go through the account set up process since the application on their website www.rgd.gov.gh is also down as a result of a temporary technical challenge at National Information Technology Authority (NITA).”

Meanwhile, the Registrar General says, “The Liquidation process for the other Fund Management Companies whose licences were revoked would be continued by the Official Liquidator as long as the Court grants the Winding up Orders and the claims of the Creditors are validated.”

How monies will be disbursed through the Amalgamated Mutual Fund PLC

The Managing Director of GCB Capital, Kofi K. El-Awuku, in an interview with Citi Business News explained that the fund has a Tier 1 component from which clients who have completed the onboarding process are currently able to redeem shares for cash with 48 hours, and Tier 2 component which is long-term in nature with withdrawal restrictions.

“The vehicle that we have created is a mutual fund with various underlying assets. However, this being a special bailout intervention by government, we have received funding from government to do principally two things. Immediately, to make payouts to those who have been crying for money for a while and also do a bit that is a managed fund portion. Indeed, the fund is called the Amalgated mutual fund PLC. It has two components. The tier 1 which enables clients to immediately access a bit of their investment and tier 2 component which is more long term. Our job is to manage the immediate needs of clients with big terms,” he said.

Source: Citibusinessnews.com