The High Court’s Commercial Division in Blantyre has ordered Press Corporation Plc (PCL) to pay more than MK7.07 billion to the liquidator of the collapsed Peoples Trading Centre (PTC).

Delivering judgment on Friday, Justice Masauko Msungama found PCL, which was PTC’s former holding company and sole shareholder, directly responsible for allowing the retailer to continue operating despite its financial difficulties and insolvency.

The court heard that PCL was aware that PTC’s liabilities exceeded its assets but allowed the company to continue trading for several years, accumulating debts that it could not repay.

Justice Msungama ruled that although PCL and PTC could not be treated as a single merged company, PCL’s control over the retailer and its knowledge of the company’s financial situation were sufficient to establish liability under Malawi’s insolvency laws.

The court has ordered PCL to pay MK7,071,493,241, covering outstanding trade debts and employee severance claims after taking into account money already recovered through the liquidation of PTC’s assets.

However, the court dismissed additional claims for interest, losses linked to currency devaluation, exemplary damages and the liquidator’s fees, saying they were not justified by the evidence presented.

PCL has also been ordered to pay 70 percent of the liquidator’s legal costs.

PTC, once one of Malawi’s leading retail chains, was placed into liquidation in October 2022 after PCL had sold its entire shareholding in the company to Tafika Holdings.

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