Fired Old Mutual CEO Peter Moyo has taken aim at the company's directors, including chair Trevor Manuel.
Moyo wants Manuel and the 13 other nonexecutive directors to be declared delinquent, court papers show. If he succeeds, it could lead to them being barred from serving on the board of Old Mutual or any other company for seven years or longer.
Delinquency is a sanction in terms of the Companies Act of 2008. It has in the past been imposed for gross negligence, wilful misconduct, breach of trust and gross abuse of a director's position.
"This battle has reached a point of no return," said one analyst who did not want to be named. "Even if Peter somehow makes it back into the CEO position there would be an extreme awkwardness afloat."
But Old Mutual says it will fight Moyo's bid to have the directors declared delinquent and to be reinstated as CEO. In the alternative, he demands damages.
The company says it will file papers to oppose Moyo's application this week, calling the former CEO's approach a diversion from the real issues.
"This strategy has included casting aspersions on other directors of Old Mutual by making false and unwarranted allegations directed, in particular, at the board chair," the company said.
At the heart of the spat is the soured relationship between Manuel and Moyo, who says in his court documents that he heard from another director that the former finance minister was "gunning for me" and pressured board members to pursue the idea that Moyo had a conflict of interest.
Moyo said the nonexecutive directors had "improperly [allowed] themselves to be bullied" by Manuel.
The company suspended Moyo in May and last month terminated his employment.
Old Mutual is an investor in NMT Capital, a company co-founded by Moyo. The insurer's stake included R5.5m in ordinary shares, R46m in preference share capital and another R150m from its private equity fund. The investments gave Old Mutual "superlative" returns, according to Moyo.
The private equity funding netted Old Mutual a return of more than 180%, he said.
Moyo maintains he kept to the protocols governing his interests in NMT.
But Old Mutual said its rights as a preference shareholder were breached when NMT declared dividends to ordinary shareholders, including Moyo, while it was still in arrears on payments to preference shareholders.
Moyo says in his court documents that NMT had been in arrears in paying dividends to Old Mutual before and it had never been flagged as a serious problem.
