CEC Africa Investments Limited (CECA), a major shareholder of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has insisted that its partner, Xerxes Global Investment Limited breached the $41 million funding agreement for acquiring the DisCo in 2013 to lay claim to a status of major shareholder.
In a statement by the company, CECA dismissed claims by the chairman of Xerxes Limited, Amb Shehu Malami in an interview with some media that the investors’ crisis at AEDC is being fuelled by greed.
Malami in the said interview claimed that CECA ought to pay him for his goodwill and name which facilitated the sale of AEDC to KANN Utility Company Limited, their consortium.
But CECA in the statement said goodwill could not have bought the DisCo. During the privatisation exercise, there were financial obligations the bidders were expected to meet which prompted CECA and Xerxes to agree on the financial arrangements, starting with the initial payment of $41m to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
It said Xerxes immediately failed to pay its contribution, leaving all the payments to be done by CECA. “Till date, Xerxes has not shown any capacity to repay its part of that obligation to CECA, six years after the privatisation. “Yet it wants to claim major ownership of AEDC but has failed to fulfil any financial obligation and has left the business risk on CECA,” said CECA’s MD and core AEDC investor, Engr Emmanuel Katepa.
Engr Katepa further challenged Malami and Xerxes to tell the public if it brought any fund in the acquisition of AEDC. “Ambassador Shehu Malami failed to address the central issue which remains that he and his organisation are claiming shares for which they have failed to pay and show no capacity to pay.
