Trustco suffers legal defeat in SA

The Financial Services Tribunal (FST) in South Africa has dismissed an application by Trustco Group Holdings to reconsider a directive by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to correct and restate its financial statements for the year ending 31 March 2019, as well as its interim results for the six months ending 30 September 2019.
The issue revolves around the waiver of two loans by Trustco’s majority shareholder, Quinton van Rooyen – one of N$545.6 million and the other N$1 billion – as well as certain of Trustco’s Elisenheim properties. The JSE found that the group’s 2019 annual financial statements and its first half-year results in September 2019 did not, in material respects, comply with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Trustco did not agree.
Dismissing Trustco’s application on Monday, FST chair, former judge LTC Harms, said the tribunal agreed with the JSE’s counsel that Trustco’s “repeated failure to take the FRIP [Financial Reporting Investigation Panel], the JSE, and the Tribunal into its confidence by explaining the economic rationale for Dr van Rooyen’s waivers of the loans amounts to exceptional circumstances”.
The tribunal ordered Trustco to pay 50% of the JSE’s legal costs.