The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria has said it is in advanced discussions with Ecobank Transnational Incorporated’s Chairman, Mr. Kolapo Lawson, following a report that he had fallen behind on loan repayments, according to a Bloomberg report.
The report quoted the Head, Corporate Communications, AMCON, Mr. Kayode Lambo, as saying, however, that the agency had yet to reach an agreement with Lawson over the debts owed.
AMCON was created to buy lenders’ bad debts.
The report, however, said Lambo declined to comment further on the matter.
Lawson said by e-mail that he had reached an agreement with Amcon officials, which he said was subject to the agency’s board approval.
Ecobank, Africa’s most geographically diverse bank, said on Thursday that Lawson had reached an agreement with AMCON.
The Central Bank of Nigeria informed the lender in April that Lawson failed to honour a pledge to repay debt owed the agency, the London-based Financial Times newspaper reported on July 16, citing documents it had seen.
“Ecobank has confirmed that the matters concerning Lawson’s dealings with AMCON have been discussed at the board and, we understand, Lawson has reached an agreement with AMCON on this issue,” the Lome, Togo-based lender said in an e-mailed statement.
Ecobank owes AMCON N1.2bn ($7.4m), the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
Agbara Estate, whose chairman is Lawson, has “long outstanding” debts of N1.6bn with Ecobank’s Nigerian unit, the newspaper said. South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation, the lender’s biggest shareholder, on Thursday urged Ecobank resolve the dispute.
“The loan to Agbara Estates, which is not yet due to be paid, was contracted between two management teams acting at arm’s length in the ordinary course of business, and was completed well before I became chairman of the ETI Group,” Lawson had said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday.
“It is fully secured by a real estate project which has since increased in value and the overall value of the project is significantly higher than the loan. The board has every assurance that the loan will be paid off before its due date.”
Lawson did not have have a personal loan with Ecobank, the lender said in its statement.
Companies on which he serves as a director have “business relations” with the lender and one of them has a “contracted loan facility” which is secure and the current repayment schedule is not yet due, Ecobank said.
A spokesman for the CBN, Mr. Ugochukwu Okoroafor, declined to comment.
AMCON, which according to data compiled by Bloomberg owns 10.7 per cent of Ecobank, was set up in 2010 after a debt crisis threatened the Nigeria’s banking industry.
Founded in 1985, Ecobank has expanded operations to 33 African countries and France, with representative offices in Beijing, Dubai, Johannesburg, London and Luanda, Angola. Its assets totaled $19.6bn at the end of March.
Ecobank’s shares trading in Nigeria were unchanged at N15 at the 2:30 p.m. close in Lagos. Ecobank stock has increased 33 per cent this year, giving the company a market value of N192.4bn. The 10-member Nigerian Stock Exchange Banking 10 Index has climbed 25 per cent.