United Rail: Back from the ?Dead?, But.....

? still NO record of Shareholders
United Rail (International) limited, the company that won a bid to partner government in revamping of the rail sector in the country, and described by a business executive as a ?Dead Company Trading? has ?resurrected?.

The company, formed 23 days before bids closed, was in the final stages of being dissolved, while it was negotiating with the government of Ghana.

On 21 March 2005, the minister for Minister of Ports and Harbours, Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, disclosed to newsmen that negotiations between United Rail and the government were suspended ?to enable the British negotiators confer with their headquarters over financial and other details that have emerged from the discussions.?

However, Companies House, which is responsible for the incorporation and dissolution of limited companies in UK, was in the process of taking action to strike the company off the UK business register.

?It may be because the directors have filed a form 652a requesting removal or that Companies House are taking action because the company have failed to file statutory forms.? explained a Companies House employee.

United Rail used the suspension period to ?resurrect? the company. On April 9 2004, the company?s status was changed from ?Active - Proposal to Strike off? to ?Active?. This means the company was ready for trading.

Recent Company filing indicates the company was incorporated in the UK on March 8, 2004. On incorporation, the Directors and Secretaries were Waterlow Nominee Ltd (Directors) and Waterlow Secretaries Ltd (Secretary), both of whom resigned on June 11, 2004.

The next secretary and director were appointed on March 29 and April 8 2005 respectively. Mr. Mathew Burrow, who led the four-man delegation of United Rail to negotiate with the government, is the director and the secretary is a 70-year-old named PHILIP OWEN BROWN.

This effectively means the government of Ghana dealt with a company without a legal director.

SHAREHOLDERS

According to Company house records, United Rail has NO shareholders (Last Bulk Shareholders List: Not available).

However, according to Ameyaw-Akumfi, ?the shareholding structure of the company was Trackbed Limited (UK), 50 per cent and Holdtrade Limited of UK, 50 per cent??

Mr. J.K.A. Wiredu, the acting Executive Secretary of the DIC, contradicted the minister

?United Rail was a consortium made up of Trackbed, which is the financier, Railroad Development Corporation of the USA as the management consultants and Holdtrade which has been working on the rehabilitation of the Western rail line for more than 10 years.?

GhanaWeb International?s investigation revealed that

.. the British Registry of companies has a record of only one registered company in the UK with the name ?Trackbed Limited?. The full name of the company is TRACKBED CONSOLIDATION LIMITED. It was dissolved on 19 October 2004. The director of Trackbed until December 2001 was John Preston ? a railway clerk.

Holdtrade Limited of UK has two shareholders. Mathew Burrows - director of United Rail and the man who led the negotiations on behalf of United rail - has 30 % and he is also the director. An investment company owns the remaining 70 % in the British Virgin Islands. Company records do not reveal any past activity in Africa. The company recorded tangible assets of ?38,615 and investments of $2000 for 2003. The net book value of the company was ?15,481.

Talks between the Government of Ghana and United Rail, a British consortium, on the management and rehabilitation of the rail sector should have resumed on April 25, 2005, after a three-week break.