Culled—Proshare
September 28, 2018/Forte Oil
Forte Oil Plc has expressed reservations over the inclusion of its name in an article published on September 25, 2018 vide SkyeBank – The Rise, The Fall And The Bridge in relation to any possible involvement.
In section 3 of the article, the author sought to identify ‘what roles insider related loans played’ in bringing the bank down relying extensively on publicly available information; and thus listed out several individuals and entities whom the bank represented as at 2017 had exposures with the bank; all of which had become non-performing leading to the recent intervention by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Forte Oil represents that it should never have been included in the said list/article.
Specifically, Forte Oil avers that:
- “One of the entities mentioned in the article is Forte Oil Plc and the shares of Forte Oil Plc which is the subject of an active court case, The case relates to some shares of the Company that were treated in line with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s directive. Skye Bank however challenged this directive and judgment was given in favor of Forte Oil Plc at the Federal High Court. It is now a subject of appeal of which the company is vigorously defending. As this is now the subject of an appeal in the appellate courts the Company would be in contempt should we address any further.”
- “It also important to highlight to your organization and your readership that Forte Oil Plc does not have any commercial relationship with Skye Bank Plc. The Company does not maintain any account with Skye Bank Plc neither does it have any trading lines or loans to that effect. Therefore, the Company cannot be indebted to Skye Bank Plc or any of its entities for the sum of N12.8 Billion. This can be verified with any credit bureau in the country.”
Importantly, Forte Oil would like for its shareholders and the wider investing public to be aware of the non-existent commercial relationship with Skye Bank Plc.