An attempt by retail giant Pepkor to stop court action aimed at preventing it from grabbing the lion's share of an almost R100 million surplus sitting in one of its retirement funds has been rejected in the High Court in Cape Town. Pepkor is comprised of Shoprite Checkers, Ackermans and Pep Stores,
After 15 days of hearing witnesses from the Financial Services Board (FSB), which wants the court's permission to rescind an earlier decision to allow Pepkor to liquidate the fund and give the remaining surplus to its shareholders, the Pepkor team applied for the case to be dismissed.
Acting judge Owen Rogers rejected Pepkor's application. Instead of proceeding with evidence to support its opposition to the application by the FSB and the Registrar of Pension Funds, Pepkor closed its case. Judgment has been reserved.
The FSB told the court that it wanted to withdraw its earlier permission to liquidate the fund because it had not been given all the facts about the size of the surplus at the time of the original application.
The financial sector regulator also claims that another transaction, involving special benefit payments of almost R9 million to the more senior members of Pepkor, should be disallowed as the funds were transferred illegally from one global fund to daughter funds.