Africa’s biggest asset manager Public Investment Corporation (PIC) will join Ecobank challenging a court ruling in Ivory Coast to pay $15 million in damages to the bank’s former chief executive, it said on Wednesday.
The PIC, which looks after 1.5 trillion rand ($129.61 billion) in South African civil servants pensions, is also the second-biggest shareholder in the pan African lender.
The court ruled last week that a letter written the PIC’s chief executive Daniel Matjila last year and published in the media tarnished the image of Thierry Tanoh, who was dismissed last March. Matjila is one of 12 directors on Ecobank’s board.
“The PIC is of the view that another court may come to a different conclusion from that of the Commercial Court of Abidjan,” the PIC said in a statement.
The appeal would be to Ivory Coast’s Court of Appeal in Abidjan.
Tanoh lost his job after months of infighting that raised questions about the regulation of Ecobank, one of Africa’s biggest financial institutions.
Judgment in a separate case involving Tanoh’s dismissal filed in Togo is expected early next month.
Tanoh, an Ivorian, now works for Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara as deputy secretary general in the presidency.
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