Intels says Atiku no longer major shareholder, after ex-VP sold his shares for $100m

The management of Integrated Logistic Services (INTELS) Nigeria Limited, has announced that former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, is no longer its major shareholder as he has divested from the company.

Making the announcement on Monday, January 4, in a press statement, Intels Public Relations Manager, Tommaso Ruffinoni, said Atiku exited the company with his family in December 2020.

Ruffinoni said the former vice president had sold off his interests through a series of transactions executed by his family’s Guernsey Trust, in deals that began in December 2018 and concluded last year.

The PR Manager added that Atiku sold his shares in Intels to Orleal Investment Group, the parents company of Intels, for various amounts totaling over $100 million in the deal that spanned two years.

The deal, according to Ruffinoni, fetched Atiku the sum of $60 million, $29 million $24.1 million, respectively, in three instalments.

According to Ruffinoni, with Atiku’s divestment of his interest in the company, two of his children working in the organisation, Adamu Atiku Abubakar and Aminu Atiku Abubakar, have also ended their working relationship with the organisation.

Read also: Atiku slams Nigerian leaders in New Year message, says they’re lazy, uninspiring

In an interview in 2015, Atiku had described Intels as his most successful business but in the last few years, the company has been engaged in a running battle with the Federal Government, culminating in the cancellation of its 17-year-old contract with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for pilotage monitoring.

In October 2017, the FG directed the NPA to terminate the boats pilotage monitoring and supervision agreement that the agency had with Intels, saying that the contract was void from inception.

The NPA had accused Intels of refusing to remit to the FG service boat pilotage revenue in the firm’s custody, which amounted to $207.646 million as at September 30, 2019.

NPA said the money was aside from service boat pilotage revenue for January 1, 2020 to July 31, 2020, amounting to $97.029 million, which adds up to $307.675 million in the custody of Intels.

However, Intels has continued to deny owing NPA to the tune of $145.8 million, insisting that NPA owes it over $750 million, giving way to a possible recourse to litigation to resolve the dispute.

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