AMCON, Bank, Firm, Head to Supreme Court Over Sale of Continental Hotel

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and 11PLC have filed an application before the Supreme Court of Nigeria seeking to quash a recent judgment of the Appeal Court which nullified the sale of Lagos Continental Hotel to 11PLC.

Another claimant/applicant in the appeal before the apex court is Polaris Bank Plc.

In a statement yesterday by its Senior Legal Officer Samuel Ozeh, 11PLC said the parties headed to the apex court through a Notice of Appeal, dated December 5, 2022.

The statement also said the parties filed a motion for stay of execution of the lower court’s judgment, pending the determination of the appeal filed at the apex court by the claimants.

According to the statement, the motion for stay of execution was also dated December 5, 2022.

In the Notice of Appeal before the apex court filed through their counsel, A. B. Ogunba, the appellants listed two grounds for their appeal.

They averred that the justices of the lower court erred when they allowed the appeal of the respondent and, consequently, set aside the judgment of the trial court on the grounds that the appellant successfully proved its case.

They claimed that the justices of the lower court also erred when they dismissed the appellant’s notice of preliminary objection, despite the alleged abuse inherent in the suit and the failure of the respondent to re-issue a fresh pre-action protocol against the second appellant.

The statement noted that the appeal filed before the apex court “has effectively arrested the ability of Milan Industries Limited to enforce the Appeal Court’s judgment and would compel the parties to maintain the status quo, pending the final determination of the appeal by the Supreme Court”.

It added: “In view of this situation, the ownership and operation of the Hotel by 11 Hospitality is not in any way impacted.

“11 Hospitality remains upbeat in the circumstance as its acquisition of the hotel followed due process and it believes AMCON assigned a valid title to it pursuant to the extensive powers vested in the Corporation under Section 34 of the AMCON Act (as amended).”

AMCON acquired the Lagos Continental Hotel as an eligible bank asset, following the failure of Milan Industries Limited to repay its loan to Skye Bank Plc (now Polaris Bank Limited) to the tune of N15 billion with the interest element of the loan verging on N30 billion at the time.

The loan may have partly contributed to the plunging of the bank into financial distress and thereby necessitated AMCON’s acquisition of its non-performing loans, including that of Milan Industries Limited.

In 2020, AMCON, in line with its powers under Section 34 of the AMCON Act, (as amended), assigned its interest in the hotel to 11 Hospitality Limited, a subsidiary of 11Plc (formerly Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc). But the sale was challenged by Milan Industries Limited at the Federal High Court, which dismissed the suit and affirmed the sale by AMCON, after it found no merit in Milan’s claim of having repaid the huge loan it took from the Polaris Bank Limited.

Milan Industries Limited then appealed the decision of the Federal High Court; and the Court of Appeal, in its judgment, set aside the decision of the lower court.

AMCON, 11PLC and Polaris Bank have approached the Supreme Court to nullify the judgment of the Appeal Court.