Ayanda Mdluli
Spur’s battle with John Dory’s is drawing to a close, it emerged yesterday, as both sides have reached a settlement over a dispute in which certain senior executives at Spur were sued for financial misconduct.
However, the Financial Services Board (FSB) has launched its own investigation of the group’s directors, about which all parties are tight-lipped.
In a JSE announcement yesterday, Spur said disputes with Stamatis Kapsimalis, the managing director of John Dory’s, had been settled. All legal action had been withdrawn and Spur had bought Kapsimalis’s 35 percent stake in John Dory’s.
“In terms of the settlement, all litigation between the parties has been terminated and a wholly owned subsidiary of Spur has acquired the Kapsimalis Family Trust’s 35 percent interest in John Dory’s with effect from January 25, 2012 for the sum of R12.25 million.
“Spur is now the owner of the entire issued share capital of John Dory’s,” it confirmed.
In addition, John Dory’s paid Spur a dividend of R3.25m, and Spur paid Kapsimalis a dividend amounting to R1.75m.
Relations between the directors of the two restaurant groups soured over rebates that were retained by Spur despite agreement with Pierre van Tonder, Spur’s managing director, that the rebates should be paid to John Dory’s.
In court papers, Kapsimalis said that a deal signed behind closed doors five years ago resulted in the chain’s Canal Walk restaurant receiving a monthly rental subsidy of R80 000 over five years from John Dory’s.
This amounted to at least R4m worth of subsidies that African Spirit, which owns the John Dory’s franchise at Canal Walk, is alleged to have received as a result of the deal.
Van Tonder, Spur’s financial manager Ronel van Dijk and non-executive director Dean Hide could have possibly been declared delinquent had the matter run its course at the KwaZulu-Natal High Court.
Kapsimalis said legal fees for the David and Goliath battle had cost him R4m. Standing up to a major corporation had drained him emotionally and he regretted not receiving what his share was worth.
Alex Pascoe, the investigation team leader at the FSB’s directorate of market abuse, said his team was looking into allegations of misleading statements made by several senior executives in the company’s annual reports since 2006.
The reports between 2006 and 2008 list Van Tonder as a director at African Spirit.
All the reports for this period say: “Transactions between the group and all the above entities have occurred under terms and conditions that are no more favourable than those entered into with third parties in arms-length transactions.”
According to Kapsimalis, the above statement was questioned and several enquiries were directed to John Dory’s auditor, Ivan Engels of KPMG.
Pascoe said: “I still can’t disclose any information at this stage, but the settlement will not (affect) the investigation.”
All correspondence between Spur and the FSB is being conducted confidentially even though Spur is a public company with shareholders.
Van Dijk refused to divulge the cost of legal fees for the saga. But it is understood they are substantial. Page 2