A United State, US court has summoned representatives of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, a body set up to manage rescued banks in Nigeria, to appear before it in a dispute with U.S. financial firm, Intangis Holdings.
Intangis Holdings, an American financial and investment company filed the complaint for damages – tortuous interference with contract against AMCON – in the supreme court of the state of New York, alleging that AMCON ignored its right to buy one of the nationalised lenders.
The court summons filed in the state of New York on Wednesday gave AMCON’s representatives 20 days to appear after receiving the summons. It pointed out that judgment would be entered against them if they fail to show up.
According to Reuters’ report, Intangis wants the court to enforce its claim over Afribank, which was nationalised in 2010 and renamed Mainstreet Bank after coming close to collapse.
Intangis said it sealed agreements to acquire a majority stake in Afribank before it was liquidated and its assets were transferred to Mainstreet Bank, but it expected Mainstreet to be bound by those agreements.
In its statement, AMCON said it was not concerned by the case because Intangis’s demand applied to the defunct Afribank, not Mainstreet.
“I know about them… They have a deal with Afribank not Mainstreet Bank. It has nothing to do with Mainstreet Bank,” AMCON Chief Executive, Mustapha Chike-Obi said.
Intangis is trying to block AMCON’s plan to sell Mainstreet Bank.
AMCON aims to offload its entire 100 percent shareholding and has asked Barclays Bank and local investment bank, Afrinvest to manage the sale.
It intends to complete a deal by Sept. 15.
Intangis said the summons follows an arbitration hearing in Paris which ruled in its favour in September 2013.
If the court upholds Intangis’s claim, AMCON may find it harder to find a buyer for Mainstreet.
The $4 billion bail-out of troubled Nigerian banks was overseen by former Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi (now Emir of Kano) and helped prevent a collapse of the banking system following a 2008/9 financial crisis.
Before the nationalisation, shareholders in several of the lenders went to court to try to stop any deals, saying Sanusi should have consulted them before injecting capital into the banks and removing their management.
Many of those cases filed are still pending in several Nigerian courts.
Source: Nigerian Pilot
