Jorotom International, the freight forwarding company that bought the National Clearing and Forwarding Agency (NACFA) has been asked to pay N10,935,703,088.01 to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria by the Federal High Court in Lagos.
The judgement debt was in respect of the company’s indebtedness to AMCON following several cases of bad debts ramped up by Jorotom International.
Jorotom International, the freight forwarding company that bought the National Clearing and Forwarding Agency (NACFA) has been asked to pay N10,935,703,088.01 to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria by the Federal High Court in Lagos.
The judgement debt was in respect of the company’s indebtedness to AMCON following several cases of bad debts ramped up by Jorotom International.
It was gathered that Jorotom had taken up several regulatory agencies in the financial services sector following the classification of the numerous credit facilities it took from deposit money banks over the years as bad loans.
The Central Bank of Nigeria had on November 21, 2012 published the names of high value debtors, including Jorotom International, and warned banks not to lend to the affected companies and Jorotom International.
Insiders revealed that AMCON’s decisive steps to get the proceeds of the judgement debt against Jorotom International triggered panic in the medium sized company as its total capitalisation is less than N2 billion and would not be able to pay.
Besides, AMCON had threatened to seal up the company and begin the sale of the assets of Jorotom International, a measure that may lead to the death of the company in view of the harrowing and flat financial position of the company.
Shipping Position Dailyrecalls that Jorotom had won the bid for the Federal Government-owned NACFA sometime in 2007.
The National Clearing and Forwarding Agency was established in 1954 by the federal government as a total freight solution provider with offices strategically located in major commercial cities in Nigeria: Apapa, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri, Calabar, Abuja, Kano, Murtala Mohammed Airport (local) Ikeja, Lagos and with affiliations worldwide.
Having been a client to Skye bank with mutual understanding spanning a long period of years, Jorotom had no problem in seeking for a loan from the bank to enable it expand its business by buying the then -federal government owned National Clearing and Forwarding Agency, NACFA.
Based on this request, Skye Bank came to the aid of Jorotom by bringing to the table N3.6 billion in accordance to an agreed mutual understanding of cooperation towards the running of the company if the bid becomes successful.
The acquisition was largely financed by Skye Bank Plc, but it was also learnt that, not long after the deal was struck, relationship between the two broke down.
Skye Bank Plc later proceeded to court, but an out of court settlement could not be reached. Jorotom, in-turn accused the bank of fraud.
This led to the near collapse of the agency before the intervention of the Asset Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON through the invitation of Skye Bank after the bank.
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