The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria said
on Monday that it had initiated steps to wind down MRS Holdings Limited over
its inability to repay the N81bn the company owed it.
AMCON said it commenced a wind-down proceedings
against MRS Holding Limited owned by a top businessman, Alhaji Sayyu Dantata,
at a Federal High Court in Lagos following the inability of the firm to settle
the outstanding debt.
The corporation had in the suit No.
FHC/L/CP/923/2016 asked the Federal High Court, Lagos Division, to allow it to
force MRS, a major player in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry
in Nigeria, into compulsory liquidation.
The corporation said in a
statement, “MRS entered into an agreement with AMCON in February 2014 to
restructure the debt, which then stood at over N74bn. In the agreement executed
by Alhaji Dantata and another executive director of the oil company, MRS agreed
among other conditions that in the event of default, all concessions granted
under the terms of settlement shall be revoked and the facility called in at
the discretion of AMCON.
“Alhaji Dantata and one
of his directors also signed a default indemnity, which stated that if MRS
Holdings Limited failed to pay any sum (of principal, interest or otherwise)
due or to become due as agreed, MRS Holdings Limited shall pay additional
interest at a default rate determined by AMCON on the unpaid sum from the date
when such payment was due up to the default payment.”
MRS described itself on
its website as “an African conglomerate in diverse activities, yet focused on
capturing the entire value chain in oil trading, shipping, storage,
distribution and retailing. We are one of the largest and most efficient
downstream players with solid roots in Nigeria and leading positions in fuels
and lubricants market in Cameroon, Benin, Togo and Cote D’Ivoire.”
Some of the subsidiaries
of MRS Holdings are MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, which has a lube blending plant at
Apapa, modern Avjet facilities in Lagos and Abuja, over 416 retail stations all
over the country, and a two-million-litre per day fuel terminal at Apapa,
Lagos; MRS Oil & Gas Limited that has a 107-million-litre storage capacity
terminal with a jetty at Apapa, Lagos, Isolo truck staging area for over 1,000
trucks, and 15 loading arms gantry with a capacity of 15 million litres per
day; and Corlay in Benin Republic, Togo and Cameroon.
AMCON stated that about
400 of its obligors accounted for more than N4.5tn, which is approximately 80
per cent of the total outstanding loan balance of the corporation’s over 12,000
accounts with obligors who had become recalcitrant over time despite efforts to
recover outstanding sums against them.
...Punch
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