NDB probes plan to buy Seylan parcel in 2015
A probe into a move to purchase a large block of shares of Seylan Bank by NDB Bank in mid-2015 is now underway at NDB.
A NDB source told the Business Times that this transaction is pertaining to a large block of Seylan shares that was to be bought at a premium. At the time, NDB was looking to acquire Seylan which the Business Times reported in 2015. But the merger discussions didn’t materialise.
The source explained that this transaction didn’t happen because subsequent to the NDB board obtaining external valuations on the price of the intended Seylan block, they had abandoned that idea.
“All this started with one person’s allegations,” he said, referring to the latest probe. The Business Times found out that the current Group Chief Financial Officer of NDB, Faizan Ozman, was involved in the discussions to purchase the said Seylan block in 2015 and that certain persons who were at NDB during that time had allegedly prompted him to do so. Mr. Ozman has been suspended pending a probe into allegations he said took place in 2015.
In simple terms, he had told the current board that this transaction wasn’t ‘straight’. “So the current board had to hold an inquiry on the turn of events and its ongoing now,” the source added. The allegations by Mr. Ozman are levelled against many who are currently not in the bank.
There was an exodus of staff from NDB when the former CEO, R. Theagarajah left the bank to Cargill’s Bank early this year. As at last December, NDB has 8.72 per cent in Seylan.