(Business in Cameroon) - The first hearing in the case of Cameroonian lawyers (Michel Janvier Voukeng and Guy-Alain Tougoua) opposed to the acquisition by the Moroccan Banque centrale populaire (BCP) of Cameroon’s international savings and credit bank (Bicec), local subsidiary of Banque populaire Caisse d'épargne (Bpce), took place October 12 at the Bonanjo Court of First Instance in Douala, the country's economic capital.

This meeting which lasted about fifteen minutes, saw the case postponed to October 17 at 1pm because, the single judge who heads the court is waiting for the “conclusion and reply” of Bpce, Bicec and the financial market commission (CMF). The only party absent was the Central African Banking Commission (Cobac).

The lawyers blame Bpce for entering into “exclusive negotiations” with the Moroccan group to transfer stakes in Africa. They believe that since Bicec is one of the flagships of Cameroon's banking industry, “the exclusion of nationals, both natural and legal persons, from the process of its transfer is a serious violation of the constitutional principles and public and private law in force in Cameroon”. “This ostracism is particularly prohibited by the rules of law applicable to multinationals,” they add.

The two lawyers filed a motion on 4 October 2018 to be allowed to summon the managers of Bicec, Bpce and Cobac within 48hrs. For the complainants, “the co-contracting parties totally ignored all competition control authorities, including the referring court”. 

Moreover, they said, Bpce Group is a shareholder of BPC. Also, since Bicec is one of Cameroon’s largest banks in terms of volume of customer deposits, there is a serious risk to public economic policy that so many vital interests are owned in only one country, Morocco.

The lawyers point out that another first-tier bank under Cameroonian law (Scb) is already dominated by Moroccan capital and that the sale of Bicec would make it the second of Cameroon's top five banks. 

Lets’ recall that it was on 24 September 2018 that the Bpce Group announced it had entered into exclusive negotiations with BCP to sell its assets in Africa. In Cameroon, the French group holds 68.5% of Bicec. The case’s end is still yet to be known.

S.A