The hearing of an alleged 7 billion naira debt suit filed by Union Bank against Swift Networks has been adjourned by the Federal High Court in Lagos State.
Justice Daniel Osiagor has fixed May 10, 2024, as the new date for the hearing, which will include discussions on possible out-of-court settlement.
Both Union Bank and Swift Networks were unable to reach an agreement on a mode of settlement, leading to the adjournment. Kunle Ogunba (SAN) and Temilolu Adamolekun represented Union Bank, while Chief Ajibola Aribisala (SAN) appeared for Swift Networks Limited.
Ogunba informed the court that Union Bank had made efforts to resolve the matter, but Swift Networks was not open to settlement.
Aribisala, on the other hand, stated that Swift Networks is willing to pay its debt, but Union Bank has not agreed to a settlement. Justice Osiagor urged both parties to explore an amicable settlement.
The suit, filed by Union Bank, alleges that Swift Networks failed to meet its repayment obligations and requested a debt restructuring, which was granted by Union Bank.
However, Swift Networks failed to fulfill its repayment obligations as per the restructuring agreement.
The Applicants claimed that due to Defendant’s failure to fulfill its repayment obligation, Plaintiff took further steps to restructure Defendant’s debt through an offer letter dated September 28, 2020.
According to the offer letter, the Plaintiff provided the Defendant with a term loan facility amounting to N7,674,292,000.00.
Both parties agreed that the repayment would come from the cash flow generated by the Defendant’s business operations and other available sources of cash flow.
To Plaintiff’s surprise, the facilities matured without the expected receivables as Defendant failed to meet its repayment obligation as stated in the offer letter of September 28, 2020, which Defendant had accepted.
Furthermore, it was agreed upon by both parties that any violation of the terms of the offer letter would be considered a default, resulting in the immediate repayment of the entire debt owed by the Defendant.
