Touchwood investors, creditors to meet liquidator on Oct 3
Touchwood PLC Liquidator Sudath Kumar is planning to meet investors and creditors next month to work out plans towards managing their plantations and paying off debts.
Mr. Kumar pointed out that he would be convening a meeting of the ‘creditors and customers’ on October 3 at 5.00pm at the YMBA, Borella for which a newspaper advertisement would be published in all three languages tomorrow (Monday).
The meeting would, among other matters, inform the investors of the issues concerning the maintenance of the trees for which Mr. Kumar would call for tenders from a suitable company to manage the plantations.
This would ensure the investors would be aware of how their plantations were being managed and how the paybacks would be made to them in the future when their lease agreements mature. At present he noted, “People are worried on how to maintain the trees.”
Investors based overseas would be contacted through letters sent by the liquidator informing them of the prospective meeting.
In the meantime, Mr. Kumar is currently on a massive search operation to identify the lands and ascertain the assets belonging to the company during which process he has been ably assisted by some of the past employees of the company.
Former employees of Touchwood PLC have submitted their claims on salaries and have approached the liquidator to provide information on the estates their exact locations and other documents available to them. About 20 employees who had worked on the estates, a legal officer and an accounts officer had provided the information regarding the company’s assets.
Touchwood’s former legal officer Janath S. Oladoduwa had handed over the protocol of the deeds of the properties.
He had also informed Mr. Kumar that a previous legal officer who would have had more information on the protocol of the
deeds had migrated to Canada and which could now be obtained from the Land Registry.
In addition, a former driver and a former maintenance officer or Superintendent of some estates had also accompanied Mr. Kumar during his site visits in a bid to provide the necessary assistance in locating the lands.
Having identified 37 estates around the country that were sold to the customers, Touchwood PLC’s former management had stated in court they did not have the deeds of the company as a result of which Mr. Kumar has been compelled to identify the assets of the company.
It was found through his meetings with the employees that according to the Survey Plan provided to him by those who had worked on the estates each was sold in lots of 300-800 and the remaining properties would be under the company.
In a bid to ascertain what lots have been sold to customers and what belonged to the company, Mr. Kumar has authorised two notaries one in Badulla and another for the Ratnapura and Kalutara areas to obtain this information. “This information should have been available with the company,” Mr. Kumar said.
In view of the winding up case that brought to the fore over 200 Sri Lankan investors who had bought properties in the Thailand agar wood plantations, the liquidator would be employing a Thai based lawyer to carry out a file search and obtain similar information as would be carried out by the local notaries. Mr. Kumar has already identified four properties of agar wood plantations in Thailand that had been given out on lease agreements.
The next hearing of the winding up case on Touchwood would be on September 19 when the liquidator is expected to submit to court a comprehensive report on the company’s assets.