Cape Town — In a new twist to the Fidentia saga, former Fidentia boss Arthur Brown said he and various staff members and shareholders in Fidentia Asset Management, Fidentia Holdings and Bramber intended launching an application for the rescission of the order placing the companies under curatorship.

He said that while some of Fidentia's major investors did not back his appeal against the sequestration, they intended "to support the application for the rescission of the curatorship orders".

This would allow him and his management team to "salvage the remaining assets of Fidentia Asset Management, with the primary object to protect the funds of the various beneficiaries".

He said the application in the high court would be aimed at removing Fidentia from curatorship and return the company to shareholders, claiming that there were "no funds missing at all" .

In a lengthy affidavit submitted to the Cape High Court, Brown levelled scathing accusations yesterday at Fidentia curators George Papadakis and Dines Gihwala, saying that they and the Financial Services Board had undervalued the Fidentia companies.

Gihwala said yesterday that Brown's actions were a "cynical abuse of the legal process".

Brown and his wife yesterday launched an action seeking leave to appeal against the provisional sequestration order granted by Judge Dennis Davis in November.

Davis will hear the application on Monday.

Rashad Kahn, Brown's legal representative, said yesterday that the basis of Brown's application to remove Fidentia from curatorship was that the curators were destroying the asset base of the companies.

In his supplementary affidavit to oppose the granting of a final order against his and his wife's sequestration, Brown said the undervaluation had first reflected a R600m shortfall, which was later reduced to R400m, and this formed the basis on which Fidentia was placed under curatorship.

He said he had not replied fully during curatorship proceedings because he was then suffering from "severe depression and had felt completely run down, physically and emotionally".

Brown said that when the curators took over the company, it had 1200 full-time employees and 3000 contract and part-time workers. The companies had invested in property assets and companies, and received its income from rentals .

It was from this income that investors received funds, and the buildings belonged to investors. The FSB and curators had undervalued properties and businesses, and in this way they had established the "shortfall".

Brown said that from March last year, when the companies were placed under curatorship, until now income of only R79m for a 10-month period was reflected while previously the average income of the group was R45m a month.

Investors were paid regularly until curatorship.

An example of undervaluation was the sale of Software Futures Group, which had an average annual turnover of R120m and was sold "for the shocking, ridiculous" amount of R12,2m. Peoples Future had been valued by Ernst & Young at R14m with an average income of R2m a month.

The curators closed down the company.

The Sante-Winelands Hotel and Spa was valued at R350m with a turnover of about R4,5m a month. The hotel had about 200 staff members when the curators took it over, closing it in March last year.

Brown also said the curators were trying to portray him "unjustifiably" in the eyes of the court as sole controller of the entire Fidentia Group.