Viceroy ‘ready’ to meet SA parliament over Capitec

● Short-seller Viceroy Research said it was prepared to appear before parliament in South Africa to substantiate claims made against Capitec Bank Holdings that sparked a slump in the lender’s share price, but hadn’t yet received a formal invitation.

The New York-based company was responding to Yunus Carrim, chairman of parliament’s standing committee on finance, who said on Wednesday it was “unacceptable” that Viceroy had refused to participate in a hearing in Cape Town. Carrim said the company had been invited but said it couldn’t comply because it is based in the US.

“We were contacted by a parliament officer, where we asked for a formal invite to discuss Capitec issues, and put our case forward,” Viceroy founder

Fraser Perring said in an e-mailed response to questions.

“We never received this invite, despite numerous requests.”

Viceroy was also prepared to meet with South African regulators, Perring said.

As recently as five days ago, it proposed dates for a meeting in New York with members of the Financial Services Board, but hadn’t received a response, he said.

South Africa’s FSB was replaced by a new regulator, the Financial Services Conduct Authority, last month.

Viceroy has e-mail correspondence that disproves the regulator’s statement that it was avoiding any interactions or discussions, according to Perring.