Dci Advisors Regulatory News (DCI)

This announcement has been determined to contain inside information for the purposes of the UK version of the market abuse regulation (EU) No.596/2014.

DCI Advisors Limited

(the "Company")

Legal Update

28 March 2023

In follow up on our legal update 13 December 2023;

Filing of approximately ?57.0 million in civil claims in Greece

Following the filing by DCI Advisors Limited (DCI) of criminal charges in Greece on 12 December 2023, last week DCI filed civil claims against 10 individuals/companies in order to seek to recover approximately ?57.0 million in damages and the cancellation of a transaction against one company in Cyprus. DCI's investigations into potential wrongdoing are continuing.

Summary Judgement UK

On 21 March 2024 the High Court of Justice in London decided at the hearing of DCI's Application for reverse summary judgment / strike out (the 'Application') that a full trial is needed to determine the Claim issued by Dolphin Capital Partners Limited (DCP) and the Counterclaim filed by DCI involving the Amanzoe call option issued by the buyer of Amanzoe in August 2018 to DCP, who at that time was the Investment Manager of DCI.

Some observations and quotes in the Deputy Judge's judgment of interest are:

- Of the three witnesses who provided signed statements on behalf of DCP ; "Two of those three witnesses are qualified and regulated legal professionals."

- "[DCP's] three witnesses explain in their statements that the Call Option was also mentioned in that meeting without any objection on behalf of [DCI]."

- "The main problem for [DCP] in this context is that none of the documents which relate to the board meeting make mention of the Call Option or its effect. "

- "[DCI's] counsel also conducted a withering critique of the witness evidence itself, pointing out its mutually supportive terms and aspects which appear to be contradictory. I have some forensic sympathy with these criticisms. The witnesses can expect to face some testing cross-examination at trial, should the matter proceed that far."

- "There is more than a fanciful prospect of [DCP's] version being accepted at trial, however slender that may seem when the three attendees' witness evidence is considered in its own terms and compared with the contemporary communications and records of events."

- "The trial judge may yet conclude that their evidence is concocted. Any such finding would have serious personal and professional consequences for each of them, as they are no doubt already aware. This is all a matter for the trial judge."

Whilst DCI's Application for reverse summary judgment / strike out was dismissed, the Deputy Judge decided that DCI is not at this stage required to pay DCP's costs of the Application, and instead reserved the costs of the Application to the trial judge. That costs order was made in order to mitigate the injustice that would be caused if DCI paid DCP's costs and it was subsequently found at trial that DCP's witness evidence submitted in support of its opposition to the Application had been concocted. 

A copy of the judgment can be found at:

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Comm/2024/678.html

BVI Update

Regarding the statutory demand issued by DCP's close business partner Zoniro Ltd [as previously announced on 13 December 2023], the hearing scheduled to be held in the BVI Court is postponed until May 2024 when the matter will be determined. Until that time, we do not expect any material developments in those proceedings.

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