Nicol shareholders take Mosha to task

        Dar es Salaam. Shareholders of the National Investments Company Limited (Nicol) are demanding that the previous management led by business tycoon Felix Mosha (pictured) compensate them for spending the equity firm’s precious time and money in court.

In a fiery 3rd Annual General Meeting that brought together members from across the country on Saturday, the shareholders called for confiscation of the former board chair’s properties if the previous management failed to compensate them.

Members blamed the equity firm’s failure to declare dividends since 2005 on Mr Mosha and his team, saying the former chairman and his group owed the investment company for mismanagement of office and leading it to a path of failure. In its presentation of corporate annual unaudited financial statements for the period between 2010 and 2015, Nicol said it had consistently made profits since 2012. It reported an increase in total asset value from Sh23.4billion to Sh94billion in 2015.

Over 60 per cent of asset growth has been credited to NMB bank in which the equity firm has a stake of over 33 million shares.

The private equity firm also reported an increase in net asset value per share from Sh344 million in 2010 to Sh2.2 billion in 2015.

During the onslaught on Mr Mosha’s team, shareholders called for expedited results of an ongoing forensic audit to take action against “those responsible for malfeasance.”

“Several shareholders invested billions to ensure Nicol served ordinary people… but if the current management is scared of Mr Mosha, we should allow the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) to step in and investigate him,” said Halili Ramadhan, a member from Arusha.

Mwanza resident David Robi called for Mr Mosha to be prosecuted for wasting shareholders’ time and causing Nicol billions of shillings in losses over unproductive projects.

Reports have indicated that Nicol’s previous management failed to comply with listing conditions provided by the Dar es Salam Stock Exchange (DSE), in respect with transparency, good governance and dissemination of annual statements to shareholders, a situation that led to the suspension of Nicol from trading shares at the bourse.

By 2009, the then Nicol management had accumulated a loss of Sh 9.4 billion, according to a report presented at the AGM.

Mr Mosha refused to recognize decisions by shareholders and filed over 41 cases at the High Court and Court of Appeal to take control of Nicol affairs and accounts, according to the current office bearers.

When The Citizen contacted Mr Mosha to comment on the matter, he said he was unaware of the Annual General Meeting and, therefore, was not better placed to answer the accusations.

“I did not receive any formal letter about the AGM. But the most important thing is that shareholders who did not attend the AGM on Saturday are waiting for a decision by the Court of Appeal, regarding who is legally mandated to run Nicol operations,” he said.