26th Feb 2016 10:28
LONDON (Alliance News) - The Ottoman Fund Ltd on Friday said it was seeking to settle its criminal case to recover embezzled funds from its Turkish subsidiaries before placing itself into voluntary liquidation.
The fund said its net asset value per share was 4.3 pence at the end of 2015, down from 30.4p the previous year, following continued efforts to recover the funds it said its chief financial officer embezzled totalling about GBP1.0 million. It said it was aiming to resolve these matters before the company is placed in voluntary liquidation.
The Ottoman Fund added over the next several weeks it will be sending a circular to shareholders seeking to extend the life of the company so it can continue its attempts to recover the funds.
It said, if the company was handed over to a liquidator now, the board would resign and shareholders would "lose any say in how the liquidator goes about his activities".
Ottoman Fund said it would then be down to the liquidator to resolve the embezzlement, as well as to recover a GBP1.0 million loan to Turkish legal entity Mandalina which Ottoman Fund believes is held in a Turkish bank account.
Total revenue for the year was GBP152,581, made up entirely of financial income, and pretax profit was GBP277,085, an improvement from 2014 when revenue came in at a loss of GBP9.4 million and pretax loss was GBP11.2 million. However, the company made a loss of GBP3.5 million over the year, due to tax charges.
The Ottoman Fund said the company now holds GBP3.9 million in a Jersey bank, having distributed GBP2.7 million to shareholders earlier this month.
"I might further point out that in seeking to extend the company's life, recover money embezzled from the group, recover funds that remain in Turkey, and defend the group against various bogus lawsuits underway, we weigh the choices we have against the costs that likely will be incurred, the amount of time that will likely be required, and the uncertainty of any outcome," said Chairman John Chapman.
Shares in The Ottoman Fund were down 6.5% at 5.26p on Friday.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
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