By Tunde Opeseitan/Lagos
Shareholders of the defunct Spring Bank which metamorphosed into Enterprise Bank following the take-over deal spearheaded by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) have filed an action in court to contest the legality of the entity known as Enterprise Bank.
Daily Independent exclusively gathered that the fresh suit, which has Citigroup Global Markets Limited and Vetiva Capital Management Limited, as first and second defendants respectively, followed fresh moves by AMCON to finally dispose of the shares of Spring Bank.
In the suit filed on Friday before the Federal High Court in Lagos by Boniface Okezie on behalf of the aggrieved shareholders of Spring Bank, the applicants are seeking a declaration that the action of Citigroup and Vetiva Capital in collaborating to transfer, dispose and create a third party interest over the assets and undertakings of Spring Bank constitutes an interference with pending matters at the Court of Appeal in Lagos in respect of the purported take-over deal.
The applicants are further asking for N295.4 billion being the value of assets of Spring Bank distributable to them as shareholders of the bank upon admission of the defendants of the worth of the bank after deduction of N208.4 billion, being the value of customers' deposits which the defendants "have converted to the use of Enterprise Bank" despite the pendency of the appeals.
The suit was filed on their behalf by their lawyer, Chucks Nwachuku of Indemnity Partners.
Besides, the shareholders are also praying for a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from further interfering with the assets and undertakings of Spring Bank in any guise, particularly acting as purported financial advisers to AMCON in its bid to dispose of the shares of Spring Bank.
The shareholders in a statement of claim recalled that on August 5, 2011, CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi, and the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Commission (NDIC) announced that the assets and undertakings of Spring Bank had been taken over by Enterprise Bank, which they called bridge bank.
The action was followed with the renaming of all the branches of Spring Bank as Enterprise Bank, while AMCON also claimed to be the sole promoter of Enterprise Bank.
The applicants further recalled that the shareholders of Spring Bank along with those of Afribank and Bank PHB, which were also taken over by the CBN, filed a suit to challenge the action before the then Justice Charles Archibong of the Federal High Court.
On July 9, 2012, Justice Archibong, who has now been dismissed from service, dismissed the suit, while an appeal was lodged against the decision, and same was duly entered.
The shareholders averred that despite the pendency of the appeal, AMCON announced in the mass media that it was going to dispose of the assets and undertakings of Spring Bank, which were purportedly taken over by Enterprise Bank, and went on to appoint Citigroup and Vetiva Capital as financial advisers for the deal.
The shareholders added that after the announcement was made, it went on to serve notice of the pending appeal in the mass media as well, and warning of the consequences of any interference with the pending litigation.
However, the shareholders lamented that despite the notice of the warning, and in utter contempt of the Appeal Court, AMCON made another publication on September 2, 2013, stating that it was in the process of disposing what it described as its shareholdings in Enterprise Bank and further called for expression of interests.
