Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON will soon repay debts to holders of its bonds this year as N800 billion has so far been accumulated.
The corporation has revealed that it would no longer buy a Non-Performing Loan (NPL) from any bank, stressing that shareholders of banks cannot challenge it over the recent increase of the contribution of banks to its sinking fund.
The corporation further stated that it would divest from Mainstreet Bank Limited and Enterprise Bank Limited by September.
Speaking to newsmen during an interactive session in Lagos, yesterday, Managing Director/CEO of AMCON, Mustafa Chike-Obi said that “We have redeemed N1 trillion bonds to the first four bond holders that are held by core institutions outside the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in 2013.
“For this year so far we have N800 billion accumulated loans to be settled soon, even as we had a target of N1trillion to write off for the Series 5 bond holders, which are banks and other institutions.
“When that is done, the only creditor to AMCON will be the CBN, no one will hold AMCON bonds unless they come to buy from the CBN.
“This will now be AMCON owing the CBN and the CBN collecting its money from AMCON recoveries and the sinking funds of the banks that CBN regulate.”
While commenting on the controversial increase of the contribution of banks to AMCON sinking fund, which stood at N118.9 billion in 2013, which the shareholders of those institutions have vehemently criticized, Chike-Obi said: “Shareholders cannot challenge AMCON, rather the Board of Directors of those banks. AMCON neither keeps nor administers the sinking fund.
“Even, AMCON does not have a representation on the fund. It is the CBN and the banks that had agreed for the fee to be increased from 0.3 per cent to 0.5 per cent. Even, the shareholders should be very happy that the CBN came to their rescue; otherwise some of those banks that are now declaring profit and dividend would have gone under.
“Before now, what was in place was a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) where banks on their own agreed to contribute 0.3 per cent of their total asset to the clean-up of the banking system following the crisis that engulfed the sector some years ago.”
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