Crucially, the court was silent on the final amount of the supposed debt commitment. The Supreme Court was always going to weigh in on this matter and in its verdict, it mystifyingly held amongst other things that the negotiations between the companies and Ecobank were inconclusive and there was no final agreement for a payment plan therefore, the companies remain indebted to the bank. Subsequently, Ecobank filed an appeal and won at the Court of Appeal in December 2020. The final judgment in 2019 was in favour of the companies. The companies then asked the Federal High Court to decide whether or not they were still indebted to the bank. In flagrant disregard of the committee’s ruling, the bank continued to threaten the companies, even taking the extraordinary step to obtain an ex parte order effectively impacting the day-to-day operations of these entities (the order was ruled to have been wrongfully procured and the bank’s lawyers censured). ![]() This was ratified by the Bankers’ Committee in June of that year. The sub-committee ruled that the ₦3.5 billion agreement reached between Ecobank and Honeywell was a “full and final settlement” of Honeywell’s indebtedness to Ecobank and was valid. In 2015, Honeywell petitioned the Bankers’ Committee, Sub-committee on Ethics & Professionalism for its intervention. ![]() In November 2014, following a long period of silence, Ecobank wrote seeking to introduce new conditions. As far as records show, this was and has not been done. In February, Ecobank wrote to Honeywell confirming receipt of the sum and assured it would update the status of the concerned accounts on the CBN CRMS portal. Honeywell thereafter wrote to Ecobank confirming the completion of the payments and requested a letter of discharge, the release of the securities held against the facilities and an update of the Group’s accounts on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Credit Risk Management System (CRMS) portal. The bank responded in agreement.īy early 2014, the companies had completed the payment of the agreed sum. ₦500 million was immediately paid and a letter was written to the bank confirming the terms of the agreement. ![]() In July of the following year, an agreement was reached that the companies will jointly pay the sum of ₦3.5 billion in full and final settlement. In May 2012, after Ecobank’s acquisition, Honeywell on behalf of the companies, commenced discussions to reach an agreement for full and final settlement of the indebtedness. These loans were all performing (that is, being serviced) in accordance with the agreed terms. Three companies, Anchorage Leisures Limited, Honeywell Flour Mills and Siloam Global Services Limited borrowed from Oceanic Bank, which was subsequently acquired by Ecobank. It is important, however, to set out its larger implications for the capital markets, the work of the judiciary in adjudicating on big-ticket disputes and the wider economy.Ī slightly lengthy but quick recap of how we got here is necessary. While it has seen an uptick in media attention over the last few months due to some eye-raising developments, most of the reporting and commentary has been mired in the minutiae of who wrote what and who is claiming what. It involves Honeywell Group, one of the country’s biggest conglomerates with a diverse portfolio that spans agriculture, food processing, consumer products and telecommunications and Ecobank, a pan-African financial giant with operations in 33 countries. ![]() There is a low-burning, long-running spat in corporate Nigeria that is astonishing in both its breadth and all-encompassing for its potential implications on how business is conducted in Nigeria.
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