Manulife bid to unveil Harvest owners dismissed
JAKARTA (JP): A Hong Kong court has dismissed an application by Canadian insurance company Manufacturer's Life Insurance (Manulife) seeking the disclosure of the principals of the Hong Kong-based Harvest Hero International Ltd.
The court's verdict, a copy of which was received by The Jakarta Post on Thursday, dismissed Manulife's application for the disclosure of the identities of the shareholders and management of Harvest.
Hong Kong judge William Stone said in a verdict signed on March 1 that Manulife's application was unnecessary.
Stone said Manulife could seek the same information by waiting for the legal proceedings to begin in a separate lawsuit filed by Manulife against Harvest.
He added that the information Manulife sought might be used in other legal proceedings outside of Hong Kong, which would violate the application's regulations.
The application, termed Norwich Pharmacal, allows a company to seek information from another company to find out who to name in a lawsuit.
"At the outset of this application the court formed the strong impression that Norwich Pharmacal relief was being pursued in this case for use in foreign proceedings (Indonesia)," judge Stone said. "Indonesia appears to represent the center of gravity of this share dispute."
The Manulife case centers around the sale of 40 percent of PT Asuransi Jiwa Manulife Indonesia (AJMI) by the now bankrupt PT Dharmala Sakti Sejahtera to the Canadian insurance company.
Manulife bought the shares after Dharmala was declared bankrupt by the Jakarta Commercial Court last year.
The proceeds of the sale of the shares were to be used to repay loans to Dharmala's creditors, including the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency.
But British Virgin Islands-based Roman Gold Assets claimed to be the rightful owner of Dharmala's 40 percent stake in AJMI.
Roman claimed it purchased the shares from Harvest, which sold the shares based on the power of attorney it was given in a letter signed by Dharmala's former president in 1996.
Manulife charged Harvest was a paper company established to allow fictitious transactions to take place.
But Harvest's legal representative, Mr. Sun, said Manulife had no right to investigate Harvest's corporate structure.
"Manulife has no business with Harvest," Sun told the Post.
He said Manulife could not demand the disclosure of Harvest's corporate structure unless the two parties were business partners.
Sun added that Harvest was considering countersuing Manulife for defamation. "We will sue them for HK$400 million."
Manulife Asia's general council in Hong Kong, Mitch New, said Manulife would appeal the ruling.
"This is a very urgent matter, we prefer not to wait several months for the legal proceedings to begin," New said.
He said that once legal proceedings in Manulife's lawsuit against Harvest began, the court would demand both parties disclose information about their corporate structures.
However, he said that it could take months before the courts began to hear the lawsuit.
In Jakarta, Manulife managing director Chris Bendl said people claiming to represent Roman had approached Manulife and offered to stop the "legal harassment" for an under-the-table payment of Rp 400 billion (about US$40.8 million).
Bendl said the offer was rejected because it was illegal.(bkm)