InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has expressed its displeasure with Messrs Kunle Ogunba, who was appointed receiver/manager by Skye Bank following an interim court order.
The IHG said Messrs Kunle Ogunba was taking steps that were against the survival of the company. These, IHG said, would likely to lead to hundreds of Nigerians losing their jobs if it made good its threat to pull out of the country by January 18 over breach of contract and debt pile up by the receiver/manager appointed by the creditor bank.
The IHG, which went into an international management agreement with Milan Industries Ltd, owners of InterContinental Hotel Lagos, in January 2012, had in a notice of termination of the agreement, dated January 3, 2018 highlighted its grievances with Messrs Kunle Ogunba.
The IHG said: “We had on various occasions, engaged the receiver/manager to ensure the proper management and operation of the hotel as part of IHG’s global hotel network. Despite multiple letters issued to the receiver/manager and Milan dated, inter alia, 18 May 2017, 1June 2017, 14 June 2017, 18 July 2017, 31 October 2017, 12 November 2017, 15 December 2017, requesting the cooperation of the receiver/manager with IHG in order to ensure that the Hotel maintains its operating licence and to avoid a material breach of the agreement, a significant amount of fees outstanding in the sum of USD 3, 142,324/ NGN995,223,818 owed to IHG remain unpaid and continue to accrue on a daily basis.
When contacted, Kunle Ogunba of Kunle Ogunba & Associates said the receiver/manager was being blackmailed. “Our reaction is simply that this is a blackmail trail. All the allegations are totally false and ingeniously fabricated. The receiver/manager has remitted over N173 million to the Intercontinental Group as of date. Apart from the name ‘IHG’, the group does not undertake any expenditure on behalf of the Hotel as all fees are paid directly from the Hotel’s lean revenue,” Ogunba said .
He explained that the disbursed sum is net of any deductions whatsoever. “The IHG group has benefited more than any other stakeholder in the Hotel’s affairs if what has been paid to them since inception is contemplated. They have refused to disclose the sums paid thus far to them since the commencement of the operations of the Hotel. The sum of N173 million is what the receiver/manager has paid to them for a period of about six months? The Hotel has been in operation for over three years?”, he stated.
Ogunba added that the receiver/manager had consistently requested for a meeting to review the IHG charges to no avail. It said the hotel’s revenue cannot sustain the IHG’s charges of almost N40 million monthly without further borrowing. Further borrowing based on the peculiar circumstance of the Hotel is foolhardy as the Hotel is currently indebted to two banks in excess of aggregate of over $100 million.
The Milan Industries Ltd took a facility from Skye Bank to part finance the five star hotel located in Victoria Island, Lagos and managed by IHG. The Milan Group, it was gathered, has up till 2021 to pay back the facility but in a curious move, the bank obtained an interim order to take over the management of the hotel.
The move has however not gone down well with IHG, which has severally complained about the way and manner the receiver/manager has been going about the assignment culminating amongst other issues, “failure to pay in full and on time all amounts due to IHG”, developments the international hotel group considers as a fundamental breach of existing agreements.
The IHG also complained in an earlier letter dated December 26, 2017 that “We are highly concerned that the Hotel’s payroll has been suspended until after the Christmas holidays. This is a further breach of the agreement, and we insist that all relevant payments are made to Hotel employees immediately.” The hotel group further complained that the service delivery level is being impaired by the omissions highlighted in its letters.
But Ogunba said a practical and more realistic approach is for the IHG to sit down with the receiver/manager to work an acceptable package for the benefit of all concerned and not retort to muddling and persistent blackmail as they are attempting to do.
“The receiver/manager has refused to be stampeded to pay to the IHG what the Hotel’s finances cannot accommodate at this time. We shall continue to seek for understanding of the IHG and dialogue as a way out of the scenario. Resort to blackmail is an avoidable red herring in the circumstance and it can’t work since the Hotel cannot pay what it cannot afford/sustain?”.