Trustco secures court order to block Riskowitz share moves in Namibia

A Namibian High Court freezes 200 million Trustco shares, halting a US fund's third attempt at board control in 2026.

By Disrupts Editorial Team Tue, 13 October 2026 AI level 2 of 5

AI level 2 of 5: drafted by our AI editorial assistant from the company's announcement; fact-checked, edited and signed off by Mark Walker, Editorial Director. What the levels mean

A black binder with a white label stands on a polished wooden conference table, centered in a bright modern office with blurred grey chairs, a window, a wall clock, and overhead lights.

Trustco Group Holdings, the Windhoek-headquartered investment conglomerate, has obtained an interim High Court order freezing 200 million of its own shares and 1,135 unlisted Legal Shield Holdings shares held by US-based Riskowitz Value Fund LP. Granted on 25 September 2026, the order bars Riskowitz from selling, transferring, or otherwise dealing with the attached shares while the court's injunction remains in force.

The dispute has its origins in a N$468 million share-exchange transaction, under which Trustco shareholders approved the acquisition of an additional 11.35% stake in Legal Shield Holdings in return for 400 million Trustco shares, priced at N$1.17 apiece. The transaction was conditional on the deal not triggering a de facto change of control. Riskowitz, which holds the shares at the centre of that arrangement, has twice already attempted to requisition Trustco board changes, in February and August 2026 respectively; both efforts failed.

Hostile Takeover or Legal Process?

Trustco's Group CEO, Dr Quinton van Rooyen, framed the attachment order in explicitly sovereign terms. "No foreign actor or shareholder will take control of Trustco in a hostile manner or by an abuse of process," he said. He also acknowledged a structural vulnerability in Namibian company law: any shareholder holding at least 5% of voting capital may requisition a general meeting without first demonstrating the merits of their proposals, a provision he characterised as open to tactical exploitation.

Reinforcing Trustco's position, the Namibian Competition Commission issued a non-binding advisory opinion in July 2026 stating that any arrangement granting Riskowitz the ability to appoint or remove a majority of Trustco's directors would require formal merger notification and regulatory clearance before it could be implemented. That opinion adds a regulatory tripwire to what is already a contested legal battle, meaning Riskowitz would need to navigate both the courts and the competition authority before securing any meaningful board influence.

Namibia's Broader Strategic Moment

The Trustco-Riskowitz confrontation is unfolding against a backdrop that gives it wider strategic resonance. Namibia is currently experiencing a resource-discovery moment that analysts have compared, in ambition if not yet in scale, to Gulf state hydrocarbon booms of earlier decades. The country sits atop newly confirmed deposits of oil and gas, lithium, rare earth minerals, and uranium, while its green hydrogen programme has drawn interest from European industrial buyers seeking post-Russia energy diversification. The IMF has projected a recovery toward medium-term growth of around 3%, anchored by mining and services.

For cross-sector investors watching frontier-market capital flows, this context matters. A listed investment holding company with real estate, insurance, lending, education, and mining exposures in Namibia is precisely the kind of diversified vehicle through which institutional capital gains leveraged access to a resource-rich, politically stable Southern African jurisdiction. The dispute over board control is therefore not merely a corporate governance squabble; it is a contest over who steers a platform positioned at the intersection of resource extraction, financial services, and a frontier-market growth story that sovereign wealth funds in the Gulf, Europe, and Asia are actively re-rating.

The attachment order is an interim measure. Trustco has signalled it will pursue all available remedies and will resist any attempt by Riskowitz to use the disputed shares as leverage for governance change ahead of settling its obligations. The next critical juncture will be the substantive court hearing, at which the merits of Trustco's claims against Riskowitz will be tested. A ruling against the fund could set a precedent for how Namibian courts treat foreign shareholder activism in companies with nationally significant asset bases, a question with implications well beyond this single dispute.