The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and FBN Holdings Plc, have made an application to the Federal High Court in Lagos for dismissal of the suit filed by Barbican Capital Ltd, a subsidiary of Honeywell Group Ltd, regarding the alleged alteration of its 5,386,397,202 ordinary shares in FBN Holdings.
Barbican Capital claimed it acquired the shares representing 15.1 percent of all FBN Holdings shares through different purchases but FBN Holdings and CBN argue that they were not shown necessary documents to prove the ownership.
According to CBN, Barbican Capital chose not to disclose an ongoing verification exercise that found out that there are only 3,110,400,619 (8.67% of total number) shares that can be confirmed whereas the remaining amount is untraceable.
FBN Holdings emphasized that the plaintiff’s suit constitutes getting around regulatory criteria as well as bypassing CBN’s checks on shareholding verification processes. The matter has been adjourned until 2nd October 2024.
This battling actions underline how important has become compliance with rules and transparency in Nigeria’s finance system.
