Gupta move on bank denied

OAKBAY Investment, owned by the Gupta family, acted swiftly yesterday to clear up what it called “untruths and misunderstandings” over its alleged interest in a bank half-owned by a trade union.

Oakbay chief executive Nazeem Howa said at one stage the company had been interested in seeking a stake in Ubank‚ but it had voluntarily walked away from the process last year.

This followed a report earlier in the day that the politically connected Guptas were aggressively wooing the shareholders of Ubank, which is partly owned by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) ,

Later, Oakbay management said the company had not accessed any due diligence data or made a binding offer for any stake in Ubank‚ and had had no direct contact with Ubank since August last year.

Howa said he had led Oakbay’s interaction with Ubank and its appointed advisers‚ and no Gupta family member had been involved.

The interaction began in October 2014 and ended in July-August last year.

Ubank is a small retail lender‚ owned by a trust managed by NUM and the SA Chamber of Mines.

Reacting to the initial reports on Oakbay still being interested in Ubank, NUM deputy president Joseph Montisetsi confirmed the bank was looking for investors to inject capital.

But it was not willing to sell its entire stake‚ Montisetsi said.

NUM spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu said separately: “This is the mining workers’ bank. It’s not going to be sold.”

Mammburu said the Guptas had tried to buy the bank and even the chief executive of Ubank‚ with some board members‚ had tried to do so “but it’s not going to happen”.

The four biggest banks in the country said this year they would stop doing business with the Guptas‚ without saying why.