Augur, Emory dispute settled

Source: Augur, Emory dispute settled | The Herald July 20, 2016

Court Reporter
A dispute over the controlling stake in Augur Investments pitting two business tycoons, Messers Kenneth Sharpe and Edward Elio Galante, has been laid to rest after the parties hammered a settlement and avoided the legal processes.

Mr Sharpe, owner of Augur Investments was embroiled in a shareholding dispute running into millions of dollars with Mr Galante’s Emory Discretionary Trust.

Emory had approached the High Court seeking an order to protect the interests of shareholders in Augur Investments, which he was accusing of disposing its immovable property and shares to the detriment of the shareholders and creditors.

Following successful negotiations between the parties in an out-of-court settlement, Mr Galante has withdrawn all claims against Mr Sharpe, his businesses and family.

He filed a notice of withdrawal in the High Court on the matter which was still to be heard.

“Be pleased to take notice that pursuant to an agreement of settlement arrived at between the parties, the applicants hereby withdraw the application in the matter on the agreed basis that the parties will each bear their own costs,” read part of the notice filed in the High Court on June 17.

The dispute between the two spilled into the High Court two years ago. The Jersey-based Emory is the second largest shareholder in Mauritius-registered company Augur Investments, which is doing business in Zimbabwe.

Emory went to High Court in March 2014, seeking to compel Mr Sharpe, through one of his companies, Hemisphere Africa Limited, to buy its purported shareholding in Augur, in terms of a purported negotiated agreement.

But Mr Sharpe denied ever signing an agreement to buy the shareholding of Emory in Augur Investments and challenged Emory to produce a share certificate and shareholders agreement signed by all the parties.

He argued that Emory’s court action was inspired by malice and designed not only to scandalise him, but also to scuttle Augur Investments’ business opportunities in Zimbabwe after he refused to sign a manipulated shareholders agreement drawn up by Emory represented by Mr Galante.

The trust wanted the court to grant it an interdict to protect the interests of creditors and shareholders, preventing all the 15 respondents from “dealing in immovable properties and shares owned or controlled by them, whether by way of a sale, lease or in any way encumbering these properties”.

According to the court papers, Harare transferred various pieces of land to Augur Investments’ 11 nominee companies for close to $15 million as payment for the construction of the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Express Highway as at September 30, 2012.