Fidelity Bank Plc has denied being bankrupt, stressing its capacity to discharge its legal obligations.
On Monday, a report had alleged that Fidelity Bank faced insolvency following a supreme court order requiring the bank to pay damages of N225 billion to a Nigerian firm.
In a statement on Monday, Meksley Nwagboh, Fidelity’s divisional head of brand and communications, clarified that the case in question originated from the legacy operations of FSB International Bank, which Fidelity Bank had acquired.
The Fidelity bank spokesperson said the “bank is under no bankruptcy and has always been in a position to discharge its proper and lawful obligations”.
Nwagboh said the issues leading up to the judgment relate to a legacy transaction between the defunct FSB International Bank and Sagecom Concepts Limited.
“FSB granted a credit facility to G. Cappa Plc in 2002 for the sum of USD3 million. The facility was secured with mortgage on a property located in Ikoyi,” he said.
“G. Cappa defaulted on the repayment of the loan and in a bid to prevent FSB from selling the mortgaged property to repay the loan, G. Cappa commenced an action against FSB at the Federal High Court, Lagos, seeking inter-alia to restrain the Bank from selling the property.
“The Federal High Court in its judgment ruled that the Bank as legal mortgagor rightfully sold the leased interest in the property to Sagecom in 2011.”
THE HIGH COURT JUDGEMENT
The spokesperson said the court did not order vacant possession of the property, leaving the matter for the Lagos high court.
“In the meantime, G. Cappa remained in possession of the property and kept collecting rents therefrom,” Nwagboh said.
“Sagecom then instituted an action against the Bank and G. Cappa at the Lagos State High Court in 2011 seeking damages against the Bank for breach of contract and for possession of the property.
“Sagecom’s claim against the Bank was essentially for liquidated damages calculated as rentals on the several component apartments in the property plus interest on same over different time frames.”
The spokesperson said in 2018, the Lagos high court awarded judgment in favour of Sagecom against G. Cappa and the bank, noting that the judgment was challenged at the supreme court.
“The Bank is convinced that by remaining in possession of the property and continuing to collect rents therefrom, G. Cappa orchestrated all the losses suffered by Sagecom. However, having exhausted the appeal process, the Bank is willing to settle the obligation,” he said.
“Unfortunately, there are significant ambiguities in the judgment resulting in difficulties in calculating the actual financial liability to the G.Cappa and the Bank which is about N14 billion from our computation based on the exchange rate as of 2005 when the incident and cause of action arose.
“Meanwhile the Supreme Court in the case of Anibaba v Dana Airlines Limited delivered in January 2025 has clarified that foreign currency judgment debt must be converted to Naira at the exchange rate obtainable at the date of judgment of the trial Court which in this case was 30 January 2018.”
Applying the 2018 exchange rate, Nwagboh said the judgment debt amounts to approximately N30.7 billion, payable jointly by G. Cappa Plc and Fidelity Bank.
In light of these developments, he said Fidelity Bank has petitioned the supreme court for clarification on the judgment’s interpretation and accurate computation of the payable amounts.
