The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria has denied involvement in the shutdown and takeover of some Lagos offices of Stallion Motors.
There were reports on Thursday that some car showrooms in Lagos belonging to the firm were sealed off over its alleged indebtedness to some banks and AMCON.
The shutdown reportedly followed a court judgment.
Although Stallion confirmed on Friday that a few of its rented and leased properties were affected because of a court order, it denied being indebted to some banks, adding that its business was not in any way disrupted.
The Head, Corporate Communications Department of AMCON, Mr Jude Nwauzor, also told one of our correspondents that the corporation was not involved in the shutdown of the auto firm’s offices.
According to him, Stallion Motors is indebted to AMCON but the loan has not been classified as non-performing.
Nwauzor said, “We have not done any enforcement on Stallion Motors. Yes, the firm is indebted to AMCON but the loan has been restructured and is performing.
“We only carry out enforcement on non-performing loans, not those that are performing.”
He added that the corporation had not made any plans to take over Stallion Motors.
Stallion Motors, reacting to the issue through a statement signed by its the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr Anant Badjatya, described the debt report as “baseless and false.”
It said, “A few of the rented and leased properties were affected because of the court’s ex parte order, which was done without any notice. We are unable to comment further on this as the matter is sub judice. Stallion’s legal team has appropriately taken it up with the judiciary.”
It insisted that the firm “does not owe N330bn to the banks as specified by the media.
“On the contrary, the organisation enjoys a very good customer loyalty across businesses and has a sound financial position with more than N750bn in assets with approximately N150bn liabilities, most of which are receivable from the Federal Government, which translates into a very healthy debt to equity ratio.”
When contacted to respond to the debt issue, Guaranty Trust Bank declined to make any comment.
THISDAY