May 30, 2018
By Abdulquddus OKELE InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday alerted investors on an electronic message being circulated on behalf of Partnership Investment Company Plc and its subsidiaries and warned it was very suspicious.
“The attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria (“SEC”) has been drawn to an electronic message being circulated to investors on behalf of Partnership Investment Company Plc and its subsidiaries captioned “Re Partnership Investment Company Plc. Restructuring and Re-organisation: A Plan to Pay All Creditors/Customers”,” SEC said in a statement on its official website.
According to SEC, the electronic message indicates a proposal to investors who lost monies to Partnership Investment Company Plc and its subsidiaries, especially Partnership Securities Limited to sign up to participate in a repayment plan with two options namely:
- Option A which is 3 years’ repayment plan. This includes taking a cash payment or accepting equity in a company to be registered and listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, or
- Option B which involves the investors accepting payment of only 50% of their investment payable within 12 months.
The Commission says its drawing the attention of the public that following the hearing of the complaints against the Partnership Investment Company Plc and its subsidiaries in June 2017, the Administrative Proceedings Committee (APC) of the Commission cancelled the registration of the Partnership Investment Limited and Partnership Securities Limited and banned the Principal Officers/actors from participating in the capital market.
SEC further affirmed that the conduct of the Partnership Investment Company and its subsidiaries on restructuring is very suspicious and appears to be an attempt to scuttle the directives of the APC.
“In view of the above, the general public is hereby WARNED to be wary of the proposal and hereby direct Partnership Investment Company Plc and its subsidiaries to submit their repayment plan officially to the Commission for the protection of affected investors,” SEC added.
As earlier reported by InvestAdvocate, SEC on September 19, 2017 announced the ban of rogue chief executive officer (CEO) of Partnership Investment Company Plc and Partnership Securities Limited , Victor Ogiemwonyi for life from holding directorship position in any public company in Nigeria for his unprofessional conduct in respect of the activities of both companies and also withdrew the operating license of the companies.
SEC also suspended for a period of five years Henry Omoragbon chairman of the companies from engaging in capital market activities in the Nigerian Capital Market (NCM).
The complaints bought against Ogiemwonyi of Partnership Investment Company Plc and Partnership Securities Limited include violation of SEC Rules on separation of clients’ funds from company’s funds, unauthorised sale of clients’ shares, failure/refusal to resolve clients’ complaints, performance of a capital market function without registration, non-compliance with the Code of Corporate Governance of the Commission, filing of false/misleading information, non-compliance with the Commission’s Rules relating to assets-mix ratio, non-compliance with the Commission’s Rules on disclosure of transactions valued at N50 million (and above) executed in a single day and soliciting deposits from the public.
However, this came on the heels of an alleged N10 billion scandal, based on official estimates, relating to diversion and misappropriation of funds by Ogiemwonyi and his affiliate companies, Partnership Securities Limited (PSL), and Partnership Investment Company Plc
