Following a Supreme Court judgement which revoked the sale of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria by the Bureau of Public Enterprises to Rusal, a Russian company, the Federal Government said it has commenced the process of handing over the company to BFI Group.

In December 2006, Rusal, the world's largest aluminium company which belongs to Russian billionaire oligarch, Mr Oleg Deripaska acquired 77.5% of the Federal Government's shares in ALSCON for USD 205 million.

It was later to acquire another 7.5% of the company from MAN Ferrostaal AG, the German firm that built ALSCON. However, Rusal's acquisition of ALSCON was mired in controversy as the Russian firm did not win the bid during financial bid opening process held by the BPE.

Rather, the BFI Group, which was the preferred bidder was side tracked by former President Mr Olusegun Obasanjo at the time and Rusal was selected to acquire ALSCON. Displeased by the Federal Government's decision, BFI went to court to challenge the process and got a Supreme Court ruling in its favor last July.

The Supreme Court, had on July 8, ordered the BPE to execute the share purchase agreement with BFI Group to enable the company to pay the agreed 10% of the accepted bid price of USD 410 million within 15 working days from the date of the execution of the share purchase agreement.

Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa DG of BPE said that it had no choice than to heed the Supreme Court directive. It is a Supreme Court judgment and we are bound to obey it. The agency had held series of meetings with the Russians and had already informed them of plans to take back the plant. But, the Russians THISDAY gathered are demanding compensation from government before they are dislodged.

Ms Onagoruwa said that as ordered by the Supreme Court, government had already commenced the process of finalizing the Share Sale Purchase Agreement which is supposed to be signed with BFI Group. What they Russal are saying is that they want compensation because in the agreement that we signed with them, we said in any circumstances like this, we would indemnify them.

She said that "What they are going to do is to submit to us a formal request that this is what we've spent in the number of years that we've been there and this is the compensation that we are requesting. We would then present it to our bosses."

Ms Onagoruwa said that "We have to put in place an ordered process whereby BFIG comes in and the Russians leave but you know you can't just tell them to walk out of the country, so it must be an orderly process. There's a timeline for it; as I said, we are waiting for the Russians to come back with their proposal and we've had meetings with them. Once they come back with their proposal, then it would enable us to take the next step."

Source - All Africa.com

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