Maryland Mall: A xenophobic impulse

I don’t know why, but anytime I visit the iconic Maryland Mall, something happens.

The last time I went there, one journeyman journalist took the place to the cleaners, lamenting about its unkempt nature and epileptic service.

I didn’t even know that the place was under receivership management until that report came out.

Under this management, the new managers had shut down its main cash earner – the large LED board, which is reputed to be one of the largest on the continent, stopped collecting tolls for the car park, another huge revenue earner, and generally just let the place go.

One wondered why this would be the case, since the objective of the receivership was to run the place to reduce liability and eventually take out liability totally.

Well, today, we know the reason.

An obscure full-page advert was sighted during the week in a national business paper, asking for buyers.

The advert was not coy about its intent. It labelled the mall as iconic and showed us a picture of the LED board, claiming that 1,000 eyeballs could see it in seconds.

It asked for serious bidders after which they would send an info memorandum with all information, after which the preferred bidder would be selected, and the transaction would be completed.

They cited as sales points – prime location, diversified customer mix, strong footfall and capable management.

One would, however, wish that life were this simple.

It is not.

My independent investigations have thrown up some interesting facts

The original owners, Purple, like most businesses at that time, ran into a serious forex turbulence.

The naira’s weakening that followed the abrupt withdrawal of subsidy threw into the mud their repayment plan to their South African shylocks.

Meeting the periodic forex repayments from naira earnings became very herculean, eventually leading to the receiver management arrangement.

From my early economics class at the defunct Federal School of Art and Science, where I failed, I was told that the receiver managers’ first task was to run the place to take out their liabilities and, in most cases, hand back once that has been achieved.

It appears these South Africans didn’t take classes at the Federal School of Arts and Science and have opted for a full sale after muting revenue taps.

Let me tell you guys what I have found out.

Purple’s exposure to their apartheid counterparts sits at about $12m, with a submitted return of about $7m.

At the time of takeover, they had paid $7m, leaving an exposure of $5m from the principal and the $7m return.

They have gone ahead to submit a repayment plan, which includes offering them a 40% stake representing the $7m outstanding return, which they can sell off and collect their money if they so wish.

They also offered to sell a portion of the mall and add cash, which restores their capital, and after that, pull out a credible forward repayment of the accumulated interest.

While waiting for a responsible response from the masters, we all just stumbled on the advert.

The feelers I’m getting at Purple is that they are not averse to the sale, but are wary of getting an acceptable valuation so that they are still not stuck with any exposure after the sale.

This is quite an unfortunate incident because these young men chasing the Nigerian dream built a structure that employed thousands of Nigerians directly and indirectly, and was headed towards the NGX to give Nigerians a fair share of the cake, only to be stymied by foreigners who are not content with maltreating us in their country but still come here to asphyxiate us with alien business practices.

Why push for an outright sale when you have been paid about 60% of your exposure, and with a clear roadmap to take the rest out if it is not their usual drunken and rowdy approach to human relations?

This is truly a very sad story, and I’m not happy.

They can come and beat me.

•Written by Duke of Shomolu