Wayne Chen to fight hold placed on his NCB shares
Published:Sunday | February 24, 2019 | 12:27 AM
Businessman Wayne Chen, operator of Super Plus supermarket, says he will be contesting an application scheduled to be made by Amalgamated Distributors Limited in the Supreme Court for a final charging order against more than 1.3 billion shares he holds in NCB Financial Group to recover a debt.
Amalgamated had sued both Tikal, which trades as Super Plus Food Stores, as well as Chen in October 2011 for failing to honour their obligations under a settlement agreement dated April 21, 2010, for goods sold and delivered to Tikal.
Amalgamated Distributors obtained a default judgement against Chen and the company in January 2012.
Tikal, Wayne Chen, as well as Richard Chen, who were named as defendants to the suit, made an application in the Supreme Court to set aside the judgement, but the application was rejected.
In October 2018, Justice Andrea Thomas, based on an application by attorney Jalil Dabdoub, made a provisional charging order in favour of Amalgamated Distributors on 1,313,632,366 shares said to be owned and held by Wayne Chen in NCB Financial Group with respect to the 2012 default judgement.
The order relates to debt of US$174,943, costs of $24,000 with interest amounting to US$70,404 on the judgement sum as well as $9,670 on the costs. It also relates to a final costs certificate obtained by Amalgamated in the sum of $465,874 together with interest amounting to $71,229.
Based on the provisional charging order, the court also barred Chen trading or transacting business with the shares without first paying the judgement debt in full, inclusive of interest and costs as well as the final costs certificate together with interest.
The hearing of the final charging order is set for March 28.
NCB Financial, which operates Jamaica’s largest commercial bank, is principally owned by Chen’s half-brother, Michael Lee-Chin.