Weeks after the October 20, 2017, announcement by the board of Evans Medical Plc of the appointment of a Receiver/Manager by Skye Bank Plc and First Bank of Nigeria Limited, following a loan default, the company, on Thursday, hinted the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) of the resignation of Chief Lawrence F. Anga, a non-executive director from the board.
A notice by Mrs. Adesua Oziabor-Akintemi, on behalf of Cautious Services Ltd, Evans Medicals’ company secretary, said “the resignation letter would be presented for acceptance by the board at the company’s next board of directors’ meeting.”
The resignation, she noted, was with effect from October 20, 2017, the date Skye and First banks appointed the Receiver/Manager based on an Ex-parte order of the Federal High Court dated July 4, 2017 which grants them the right to take over the company’s assets used as collateral against facilities granted by the both banks.
Meanwhile, investdata.com.ng findings on the company’s website and the 2014 audited result (the last of such presented to the NSE) on Thursday night, does not list Chief Anga as a member of the board. Instead, Bolaji Odunsi, who represented Devpharm Limited, as the biggest shareholder, with 28% stake as of December 31, 2013, is still listed on the website, despite having resigned from the board on August 15, 2014, as stated in the 2013 financials.
Oziabor-Akintemi had informed the exchange in her earlier letter that “the board of Evans Medical however has begun discussions with the two lenders with a view to arriving at an amicable resolution of the matter and the discussions are progressing favourably.”
Evans Medicals, one of the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s oldest listed company, last presented its financials: the unaudited report for the nine-month Ended September 30, 2015. Since then, nothing has been received until the announcement of the unnamed Receiver/Manager.
Anga, a partner at AELEX, a leading commercial and litigation law firm, was in January 2016, appointed chairman, Board of Trustees of the Investors’ Protection Fund of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, following the demise of its previous Chairperson, Gamaliel O. Onosode.
A past Chairman of the Capital Market Solicitors Association and a member of various ad-hoc committees established by the Ministry of Finance and the Securities and Exchange Commission, he was Chairman of the CBN SMIES policy guidelines review committee and joined the IPF Board in September 2012
A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, he was a member of the Presidential Policy Advisory Committee, where he served in the sub-committee on finance and investment.