Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) affirmed the sale of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), one of the biggest electricity distribution companies in Nigeria, and pledged that any assets sold by the company going forward will be assessed fairly and fetch their full market worth.
In a bid to recover over N2 trillion in bad debts from obligors nationwide, AMCON is in talks with a few international asset tracers. The bad debt bank also announced that it had started selling its assets again after 18 months of halting sales.
“We have also commissioned some foreign asset tracers who will help us locate where some of these obligors have hidden their assets across the globe,” stated Gbenga Alade, the company’s managing director and CEO, during a Thursday interactive session with media executives in Lagos.
In a similar vein, he said that in addition to AMCON’s successful interactions with AfreximBank, Arik Air is making a comeback to profitability. Last year, it was the second-most important airline, with only four carriers. Additionally, Aero Contractors is providing the nation with enormous value. He noted that Aero is currently the only airline in Nigeria having an MRO, which can only be the consequence of careful and efficient management.
The CEO added that AMCON was currently looking for risk-takers who are prepared to take up these businesses, invest in them, and turn them around. He also revealed that the corporation was looking for a long-term solution to its moribund assets around the nation.
He promised that the new AMCON would recover many of the bad loans it inherited through transparent asset sales to make sure that any asset sold is truly worth the price, and that the corporation would continue to carry out its mandate with fear of God, love for the nation, and within the bounds of the law. He previously revealed that the Corporation’s debtors hurt the Nigerian economy by not intending to pay back the loans they took out from different banks.
He emphasized that while dealing with AMCON’s stubborn debtors is not always easy, dealing with debtors who hold top positions in the government and various decision-making portfolios in the nation’s governance is one of the most difficult challenges he has ever encountered in his professional life.
After halting sales for 18 months, he stated that the company has now suggested selling its assets. He claimed that this was done in an effort to recover some of the bad loans it had inherited and that any assets the company sold going forward would be valued fairly. In order to do this, AMCON renegotiated the previous sale of IBEDC and received nearly twice as much money (roughly N100 billion) from the deal.
He stated that AMCON would shortly turn over the business to the preferred bidder and that the divestment of IBEDC was nearly finished. There are still some diversions out there, he noted, despite the fact that AMCON’s current leadership has pushed bidders to obtain the highest and most reasonable value.
