Resort Savings and Loans Secures $10m from Milost for Recapitalisation

**As Board Wants Suspension Lifted to Enable Release of Funds

By Dipo Olowookere

All seems to be going well with plans by the board of Resort Savings & Loans Plc, a financial institution listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), to recapitalise the firm and give it a brighter future.

This is because the company has informed the NSE and its shareholders that a foreign investor has agreed to inject $10 million into the bank.

According to a statement issued on Thursday, September 20, 2018, Resort Savings & Loans said a US-based equity firm, Milost Global Incorporation, is ready to provide the money, however, $1 million for a start, which amounts to N306 million, going by the interbank exchange rate at the moment.

But one of the major worries of Resort Savings & Loans is that, “The release of the fund is being delayed by the valuation of the bank’s shares through market forces.”

This is because, “The shares are presently on technical suspension and we believe that this will be lifted on provision of constant and required information to the market.”

Business Post reports that the stock market regulator placed Resort Savings & Loans on suspension because it failed to file its 2015, 2016 and 2017 financial statements.

But Resort Savings & Loans said as part of its efforts towards resolving the issues, Messrs BBC Professionals was auditing the accounts so as to forward them to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), its industry regulator, for approval before being transmitted to the NSE.

Resort Savings & Loans said in the statement that as soon as the 2016 and 2017 financial statements are approved by the CBN, it would release them.

However, it noted that the 2015 accounts have been approved and forwarded to the NSE for public consumption.

The board of Resort Savings & Loans disclosed that it is ready to “turn the bank around positively and “have assurances that the funds which are already escrowed shall be released as per our agreed Term Sheet. It is not in the interest of anybody that the funds are kept idle any further.”

Also in the statement, The bank revealed that it has appointed “parties to the issue in view Execution of Escrow Agent Agreement with the Milost Global Inc. and the Escrow Agent in Nigeria, Mr Kunle Adegbite.”