Krem Radio and Sagis take shares dispute to court

After almost fourteen years, two rivals have found themselves back in court battling an old transaction that they signed back in 1994. Today Krem Radio and Sagis Investments Limited were before the Court of Appeal requesting Justices Manuel Sosa, Boyd Carey and Cecil Morrison to review a ruling made last May when Chief Justice, Doctor Abdulai Conteh dismissed a claim by Sagis Investments Limited to be listed as a shareholder of Krem Radio. It all started when in June of 1994 Sagis agreed to help out a cash-strapped Krem, in dire need of a transmitter, by investing a hundred thousand. In return for that investment, Krem agreed to issue a promissory note for seventy-five thousand Belize dollars and transfer ten per cent of the share capital in Krem. But, Sagis never got its shares transferred. And in his ruling last May, the Chief Justice upheld the arguments of Krem’s lead attorney, Michael Young, that Sagis was never entitled to the shares because the company’s Articles of Association stipulated that the shares were to be offered to the other shareholders first and this wasn’t done. In today’s appeal Vincent Nelson, Q.C., appearing on behalf of Sagis, told the Court that Krem had the powers to transfer the shares to Sagis without going though the pre-emption procedure in the articles. He also told the Court to grant relief for a claim in fraudulent misrepresentation on the basis that while Krem took the money, they had no intention of transferring the shares. By the close of the day, attorneys for the Respondent, Senior Counsels Michael Young and Lois Young were just about to begin their arguments. The case continues tomorrow.