Provisional appointment of new Fidentia Curator
The Western Cape High Court has provisionally appointed Mr John Levin as curator of the financial services business of Fidentia Asset Management (Pty) Ltd, Bramber Alternative (Pty) Ltd and Fidentia Holdings (Pty) Ltd (Fidentia). This follows the resignation of Mr Dines Gihwala as curator in July 2014.
Mr Levin qualified as an attorney, notary and conveyancer in 1967 and holds a BA (Law and Economics) from University of Stellenbosch and a Diploma in Law from the University of Cape Town. He is currently a member of the Corporate Law Alliance, an association of independent attorneys which he joined in 2009.
Mr Levin has extensive experience in the negotiation and drafting of commercial agreements and the resolution of commercial disputes. He spent the past 40 years in commercial practice in South Africa, following his initial experience as a general legal practitioner, with firms including Swemmer & Levin, Vredenburg, Mallinick’s Inc. and Webber Wentzel. Mr Levin also serves as a member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the Cape Law Society.
In March 2007 Mr Levin was appointed as one of the Curators of Ovation Global Investment Services (Pty) Ltd and its nominee company Ovation Global Investment Nominees (Pty) Ltd, companies which provided financial administration services to the clients of independent financial advisers.
At the time Ovation had R4.4 billion of assets under administration on behalf of some 15,000 investors. When the curatorship had run its course, except for an outstanding claim which is being attended to by his co-curator, Mr Levin was discharged as co-curator on 14 November 2012 at his own request.
The appointment of Mr Levin was made after the FSB approached the court to make a provisional appointment in order to allow interested parties to comment or object to that appointment before it is made final. The court will make a final pronouncement on Mr Levin’s appointment on 19 September 2014.
Regarding the costs and disbursements of the Fidentia curatorship, there have been twelve reports put before the court and published on the FSB’s website giving on going updates as to the progress of the curatorship and the costs attached thereto.
