N156bn Debt Suit: Court Upholds UBA’s Appointment of Receiver over Stallion Group
A Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday upheld the appointment of Romeo Ese as receiver by United Bank for Africa (UBA).
Justice Daniel Osiagor affirmed the appointment in a N156 billion debt recovery suit filed by UBA against Stallion Group and its subsidiaries.
The judge granted the reliefs sought by the bank and affirmed the court’s jurisdiction to hear the case. The court also affirmed the receiver’s right to take possession of mortgaged property and seek protective orders.
It held that the defendants did not dispute their indebtedness, although they challenged the amount claimed.
According to the court, reconciliation of accounts between the parties did not extinguish the underlying indebtedness.
Justice Osiagor consequently dismissed objections by the 12th defendant, Barbedos Ventures Ltd., for failing to establish proprietary rights over the mortgaged property.
The court also restrained the defendants from diverting receivables due to them from government agencies, reinforcing the bank’s efforts to protect its recovery interests.
UBA filed the suit in October 2023, claiming that Stallion Group owed it N156 billion.
Stallion Group, however, disputed the claim, describing the alleged indebtedness as entirely false.
The bank said it granted several credit facilities to Stallion Nigeria Ltd. in 2014, under an agreement allowing other companies within Stallion Group to utilise the facilities.
It said the arrangement was subject to the terms of the offer letter.
UBA further stated that the defendants pledged assets in Kano, Port Harcourt and Lagos as security for the loans.
In an affidavit, the bank’s Group Head, Recovery and Remedial Management Department, Mr Anthony Chilaka, said Stallion Group Chairman, Mr Sunil Vaswani, personally guaranteed the facilities on Oct. 18, 2023.
Chilaka also stated that Stallion Motors secured a Federal Government contract in 2014 to supply 700 Ashok Leyland trucks, Stallion troop-carrying vehicles and 50 Falcon seater buses for military use.
He said the parties agreed that payments for the vehicles would be made into Stallion’s account with UBA.
According to the bank, after delivering the vehicles, Stallion Motors allegedly requested that the government pay the first instalment of $50 million into its Dubai account.
The bank further alleged that Stallion received N8.2 billion into its offshore account instead of the designated UBA account.
UBA said the transaction contravened the agreement between the parties and that the defendants failed to settle their outstanding debt, which it put at N156 billion. Nigeria’s 10-Year U.S. Dollar Bond Yield Falls 6 bps
