KINGSTON, Jamaica – Cable & Wireless Jamaica Limited (CWJ), says it intends to “vigorously oppose” an application made by one of its shareholders seeking permission from the Supreme Court to file a derivative action in a court in Florida.

The shareholder, Eric Abrahams, is requesting to file the action in name of and on behalf of CWJ against its parent company, as well as some of CWJ’s past and present directors and, who he terms, shadow directors.

According to a statement on the Jamaica Stock Exchange website, Abrahams is taking the legal action for losses sustained by CWJ which he said were caused by them acting in breach of their fiduciary duties, for the sole benefit of the parent company.

He is seeking, through the lawsuit, to recover an undisclosed sum of money against assets owned by the parent company in Florida.

It is apparent that his complaints mainly concern the significant losses sustained by CWJ as a result of the lack of regulation for a protracted period of new entrants into the mobile market in the telecoms industry after liberalisation, the statement added.

The parent company had extended financial support to CWJ by way of loans, which enabled the company to weather that stormy period while it fought to ensure that a level playing field in the mobile market was implemented, which then resulted in a reversal of the previous trend and improvement in CWJ’s revenues, the statement noted.

It ended by stating that “CWJ therefore intends to vigorously oppose the application when it comes on for hearing on the 19th of April 2018”.