Modise controls 50% of Grissag, formerly part-owned by a mysterious Russian financier controversially involved in trying to raise R15-billion to help clear South African Airways\u2019 (SAA) debts.<\/p>\n
Modise said Property 2000 \u2014 a South African-registered developer \u2014 \u201cdoesn\u2019t have the 2.45-billion, but I got investors whom I have partnered with and contracted\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got pockets of investors funding different projects. Some are big names that you know, local and international,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Modise disclosed that Grissag was among the investors behind the Lesotho project but would not divulge how much the company would contribute, saying this was confidential.<\/p>\n
Grissag co-director Pieter van der Merwe said he was aware of the Lesotho project, but referred the MNN centre to Modise.<\/p>\n
In a memorandum of September 9 last year, Lesotho\u2019s Minister of Finance, Moeketsi Majoro, approved \u201cnegotiations of the loan agreements and guarantee agreements between the Government of Lesotho and Property 2000 \u2026 for an amount of R2.45-billion\u201d.<\/p>\n
But he also raised numerous red flags about the deal and an investigation by MNN has posed new questions about the Lesotho partners tapped for the project (see \u201cQuestions over contractors in Lesotho\u2019s R2.4-billion stadium deal\u201d).<\/p>\n
Grissag has previously been embroiled in other contentious deals, many of them involving\u00a0 <\/span>generous sovereign guarantees.<\/p>\n Daily Maverick reported<\/span><\/a> in June 2019 that Grissag, formerly co-owned by Russian citizen Sergey Pokusaev, was involved in three different bids to help SAA raise R15-billion to consolidate its debt portfolio \u201cunder highly questionable and controversial circumstances\u201d in 2015\/2016.<\/p>\n Pokusaev first emerged in 2014 as the purported financier behind a $150-million rescue bid for troubled Zimbabwean investment bank Tetrad. The deal failed to materialise and the bank was placed under judicial management.<\/p>\n Grissag AG was registered in 2015, with Free State farmer Pieter Johannes van der Merwe and Pokusaev as co-directors.<\/p>\n SAA executives at SAA pushed to install the unknown company as an arranger for a debt-consolidation package, despite the fact that it had no real trade record and no licence to act as a financial service provider.<\/p>\n Grissag and its partner, BnP Capital, stood to rake in more than R300-million, according to media reports.<\/p>\n At the time, BnP Capital was serving as a transaction adviser to SAA. In terms of its agreement with Grissag, the latter would be paid 1% by SAA for each drawdown amount of the loan, to be shared equally between the two companies.<\/p>\n The proposal crashed amid a public outcry.<\/p>\n Modise replaced Pokusaev as a Grissag director in January 2019, with Van der Merwe remaining as co-director.<\/p>\n In testimony at the Zondo Commission<\/a>, Van der Merwe said he met Pokusaev in 2014 in Zimbabwe, where the latter was to sign a contract with the Zimbabwean government to raise funds for projects.<\/p>\n \u201cI proposed to Mr\u00a0 <\/span>Pokusaev that he should look into similar opportunities in South Africa and that I would be the Grissag representative.\u201d<\/p>\n Van der Merwe said he first engaged the Free State Development Corporation (FDC), and attached to his witness statement a letter from the FDC applying for a R5.6-billion line of credit to fund projects in the Free State.<\/p>\n This proposal did not go forward because the FDC could not secure a government guarantee as security for the repayment of the funding, he said.<\/p>\n He then learned of SA\u2019s attempt to raise R15-billion and agreed to partner the FDC in a joint venture to raise the finance, but this was apparently vetoed by national treasury.<\/p>\n In September 2018, the Malawi government struck a deal with Grissag \u2013 similar to the Lesotho deal \u2013 to provide $400-million in loan finance for the controversial<\/span><\/a> Salima-Lilongwe Waterway Project, intended to supply Lilongwe with water from Lake Malawi.<\/p>\n Malawi\u2019s Times Group reported<\/span><\/a><\/span> the loan agreement as stating that \u201cthe interest rate on the long-term loan will be fixed at 1.8% per annum, paid on a yearly basis for the 30-year period\u201d.<\/p>\n Grissag reportedly demanded an upfront payment of $400 000.<\/p>\n The Times<\/i> said the company driving the project, Khato Civils, pressured the Lilongwe Water Board to hand over an amount of $25-million for pre-project mobilisation. Despite the fact that the project appears to have stalled, Khato was eventually paid $17-million.<\/p>\n Last year the Malawian media reported that the government had frozen the project after losing interest in it.<\/p>\n Khato, owned by Malawi tycoon Simbi Phiri<\/a>, has also been embroiled in controversies over large water contracts in South Africa and Botswana.<\/p>\n Modise disclosed that he was one of those who negotiated the Malawi deal, adding that the interest rate for that loan was lower than the rate been offered to Lesotho because Malawi negotiated an up-front payment.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThe [Malawi] project will never start due to lack of funds. The new minister of finance is no longer interested and they don\u2019t trust people who were engaged in the project.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA Malawi delegation will be here [South Africa] from January 29-31 to negotiate a new deal for financing a different project so that they can field their own loyalists,\u201d he alleged.<\/p>\n In September 2018 Grissag, in partnership with United States-registered Kallo Inc, which claims it develops customised health care solutions, struck a deal with the Guinea government to raise $8-billion for health, agriculture, infrastructure and water-related projects.<\/p>\n In the agreement, the Guinea government provided \u201ca classic government guarantee\u201d to Grissag, which was represented by Van der Merwe.<\/p>\n \u201cThe applicable interest rate is 1.5% with a 30-year loan period, including a five-year grace period,\u201d reads the agreement<\/span><\/a>, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).<\/p>\n Kallo, whose chief executive is naturalised Canadian John Cecil<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> has, according to its SEC filings, made no revenue for years.<\/p>\n In 2017 filings<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> Kallo also referred to \u201cmajor concession agreements\u201d reached with government institutions in Ghana for the construction and operation of various hospital facilities.<\/p>\n It noted: \u201cProject Financing for the projects is being arranged by Seawave Invest Ltd. Bahamas, Nova Capital Global LLC, New York, and Grissag AG (Pty) Ltd.\u201d<\/p>\n By 2019, the Ghana hospital project had morphed into a $60-billion oil hub project, to be pursued via a joint venture<\/span><\/a> between Kallo and Ghanaian company Vintage Ventures Limited.<\/p>\n Funding was to be sourced by Techno-Investment Module Ltd, a corporation registered in Belarus and led by Sergey Pokusaev, the former director of Grissag.<\/p>\n Modise said that although he was not involved in the negotiations for the Guinea deal, he understood there was a separate off-take agreement that provided for a cash guarantee.<\/p>\n In January this year Lekoil, a small Nigerian oil firm listed on London\u2019s Alternative Investment Market, was plunged into crisis after it disclosed that a $184-million loan from the Qatari Investment Authority previously announced to investors was fake.<\/p>\n Lekoil said it had paid $600 000 to Seawave Invest to introduce it to the Qataris and advise Lekoil on the process. The Seawave website lists Grissag as a \u201cpartner\u201d.<\/p>\n Lekoil had a rude awakening when representatives from the Qatari fund reportedly<\/span><\/a> questioned the deal.<\/p>\n A notice<\/span><\/a> on the Seawave website \u2013 which does not disclose any of the company\u2019s officers \u2013 says: \u201cSeawave Invest Ltd has been informed of the recent allegations of \u2018investment scam\u2019 reported by several media outlets about its arrangement for a loan facility on behalf of Lekoil Ltd with the Qatar Investment Authority \u2026 and takes these allegations very seriously. Seawave Invest Ltd will not make any comments at this stage whilst awaiting the results of its own assesment [sic] and investigation of this matter.\u201d<\/p>\nSouth African Airways<\/h5>\n
Malawi<\/h5>\n
Guinea and Ghana<\/h5>\n
London<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/MNN-Centre-for-Investigative-Journalism2.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"