Gupta-owned Oakbay Investments sought to clarify "speculation" that it allegedly bid for a stake in Ubank, saying it voluntarily walked away from the process in 2015.
This followed a report earlier on Thursday that the politically connected Guptas were "aggressively wooing" the shareholders of Ubank in a bid to buy the bank.
According to Independent Media, the Guptas were meeting and calling leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) for weeks, trying to convince them to sell.
'Ubank or our stake in the bank is not for sale': NUM
In a statement on Thursday, Oakbay management said it had not accessed any due diligence data or made a binding offer for any stake in Ubank, and had had no direct contact with Ubank since August 2015.
"We did express an early interest in Ubank a couple of years ago, but voluntarily walked away from the process at an early stage — without even going through the due diligence process — and that’s where direct contact with Ubank ended. It’s as simple and unexciting as that," CEO Nazeem Howa said.
Oakbay CEO maintains they walked away from Ubank bidding process in 2015
Gupta-owned Oakbay Investments sought to clarify "speculation" that it allegedly bid for a stake in Ubank, saying it voluntarily walked away from the process in 2015.
This followed a report earlier on Thursday that the politically connected Guptas were "aggressively wooing" the shareholders of Ubank in a bid to buy the bank.
According to Independent Media, the Guptas were meeting and calling leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) for weeks, trying to convince them to sell.
'Ubank or our stake in the bank is not for sale': NUM
In a statement on Thursday, Oakbay management said it had not accessed any due diligence data or made a binding offer for any stake in Ubank, and had had no direct contact with Ubank since August 2015.
"We did express an early interest in Ubank a couple of years ago, but voluntarily walked away from the process at an early stage — without even going through the due diligence process — and that’s where direct contact with Ubank ended. It’s as simple and unexciting as that," CEO Nazeem Howa said.
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