Telecom company Comium managed by Monty Mobile, have filed an appeal at the court on Tuesday against a ruling ordering the appointment of a receiver for the company.
On November 19, Justice Sonia Akindinyi KJW of the Banjul High Court ruled that a receiver be appointed to take over the day-to-day affairs of Comium Gambia Limited.
The order also restrained four defendants, C-Mobile Group Limited, Nizar Mohsen Dalloul, Monty Mobile Limited and Monty Holding SAL from taking any decision in Comium Gambia Limited.
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On Tuesday, lawyers acting for Comium lodged an appeal against the ruling and asked for a stay of execution of the order.
In their affidavit, Comium listed at least 11 “errors” by the judge which they argued, should warrant a negation of her ruling.
Among them they stated: “The judge did not avert her mind to the fact that the 5th Appellant [Comium] is a going concern and is neither insolvent nor subject to any winding up proceedings to warrant the immediate appointment of a Receiver.”
They said the respondent is not a creditor who is seeking to prevent the dissipation of the company’s assets and by implication his investment and that Comium is in a healthy and financially viable state and an appointment of a receiver will only scare investors and creditors.
Therefore, they contended, “the stringent conditions required by law before a receiver is appointed by court have not been established and satisfied in this case”.
They said Mr Musa did not produce any evidence in his affidavit in support before the court showing serious fraudulent misconduct or fraudulent mismanagement by the appellants to give rise to an immediate appointment of a receiver. They therefore sought relief from the court of appeal to set aside Justice Akindinyi’s ruling.
An affidavit sworn to by the head of legal affairs at Comium stated that in 2021, Monty Mobile signed a management and operation agreement to take over the management of Comium, which was effectively insolvent at the time.
He stated that Comium was struggling to pay salaries and owed taxes, spectrum fees and licence fees to Public Utilities Regulatory Authority which led to the suspension of its GSM licence.
He said Monty Mobile injected US$2,087,778 into Comium enabling the settlement of outstanding tax liabilities, spectrum fees, licence fees and regulatory fees to enable the lifting of the suspension on Comium’s GSM licence, a timely intervention that rescued the company, which was on the verge of bankruptcy.
He stated Comium currently employs 248 permanent staff and at least 150 contractors working on its 4G expansion project and that appointment of a receiver will lead to a call-up of the loans by creditors which will eventually bankrupt the company and render its employees jobless and affect other long terms service contracts.
He said the word “receiver” alone is a “red flag” for customers, creditors, investors and partners in the corporate world “where stability and confidence are strong benchmarks”.
He stated that is why they are “vehemently opposing” the appointment of a receiver because Comium is neither insolvent nor subject to any winding up proceedings to warrant the appointment of a receiver.
“ It will be a great travesty of justice to allow the appointment of a receiver at the behest of the minority shareholder holding 5% to the detriment of the remaining shareholders 2nd, 3rd and 4th Defendants who hold 85% of the shares, and to the plaintiff’s/respondent’s own detriment if the 5th defendant goes bankrupt by the appointment of a Receiver,” he stated.
