Moyo’s NMT fights back over IDC loan

Investment firm ensnared in public mudslinging match between Old Mutual and its former CEO

NMT Capital, a boutique investment company co-founded by axed Old Mutual CEO Peter Moyo, says it is on track to pay off its Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) debt, as it seeks to clear its name after being ensnared in a public mudslinging match between the insurer and its former boss.

Old Mutual, which sacked Moyo over conflict of interest and breakdown of trust, has painted NMT Capital as a firm with little regard for corporate governance, saying its directors pocketed millions in dividends before paying off a R157m loan from the IDC, as well as overdue preference dividends to Old Mutual, which owns a stake of about 20% in the company.

Speaking to Business Day, Sango Ntsaluba, one of the founders of NMT, accused Old Mutual of using the IDC loan to portray Moyo as an executive with an indifferent attitude towards corporate governance.

“I feel sorry for the IDC, I feel sorry for NMT Capital because the party that is dragging everybody else there is Old Mutual,” Ntsaluba said, adding that his company was on track to pay off everything it owed to the IDC under a settlement agreement struck in 2018.

“What I can tell you is we are paying every rand that is outstanding in terms of the agreement. We have an agreement with the IDC and we are paying the whole amount agreed upon. By the way, we are not in arrears,” he said.

Old Mutual, which is in the middle of selling its 20% stake in NMT, said that it “regrets that NMT has chosen to air its views in this way”.

The IDC had originally lent money to NMT Capital to buy a roughly 8% stake in construction firm Basil Read, but when Basil Read’s collapse left NMT Capital’s investment under water, it initiated a discussion with the IDC about how to settle the loan.

The two parties agreed on a settlement in November 2018, writing off a large portion of NMT’s debt.

However, a letter from the IDC’s lawyers shows that the IDC scrapped the settlement agreement in July, meaning

NMT would have to pay the full amount owed because it turned out, months after the agreement was reached, that an undisclosed R300m flowed into NMT accounts from the sale of its holding in property group Growthpoint, according to a letter, dated July, from IDC lawyers.

Ntsaluba said the settlement agreement remained valid.

“We responded to the lawyers’ letter to say, you are making a mistake; we’ve disclosed everything to the IDC. Let somebody come to me and show me that, this is the information you didn’t give me,” Ntsaluba said.

IDC CEO Tshokolo Nchocho told Business Day that the institution had approached NMT Capital in recent months to “seek clarity on a few points”, while reviewing the terms of the settlement agreement, but he was not prepared to disclose the specifics of the issue.

Ntsaluba also said the amount that NMT owed the IDC was much smaller than the R157m that Old Mutual claimed, but he would not give the exact amount.