…awards N10m each against appellants

By Vivian Okejeme

The Supreme Court, has dismissed an appeal seeking the dissolution of the merger between Providus Bank Limited and Unity Bank Plc for lacking in merit.

A five-member panel of the apex court, in a unanimous decision upheld the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal.

The judgement delivered by Justice Tijani Abubakar, premises on Section 22 of the Supreme Court Act to directly sanction the merger between Providus Bank Limited and Unity Bank Plc.

By the reason of the judgement, all litigation surrounding the merger process was effectively laid to rest.

The appellants, Suleiman Abubakar and Mohammed Goni Modu, both customers and shareholders of the banks, had challenged the appellate court’s judgement.

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The Respondents in the matter are Providus Bank, Unity Bank, PAC Capital Limited, Vetiva Advisory Services Limited, Lighthouse Capital Limited, Planet Capital Limited, and the Corporate Affairs Commission.

Also listed were the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Recall that the merger process began in July, 2025, when both banks approached the Federal High Court for approval to convene separate meetings of shareholders and directors to consider a merger scheme.

After obtaining the court’s approval, the banks held meetings where the scheme was endorsed and subsequently sanctioned by the trial court.

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However, the appellants, who were not originally parties to the merger process, later sought to challenge it.

After being joined as interested parties, they asked the trial court to dissolve the merger.

Dissatisfied with the trial court’s handling of their application, they proceeded to the Court of Appeal which dismissed their case on March 6 and ordered an accelerated hearing of the substantive suit.

However, still dissatisfied, they headed to the Supreme Court for redress.

The apex court, in its ruling, dismissed the appeal and imposed a cost of N10 million each against the appellants in favour of the respondents.

The court further ordered the transfer of all assets, liabilities, and undertakings including real properties of Unity Bank Plc to Providus Bank Limited, in line with the approved merger scheme.

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The judgement also stated that the transfer must be completed within 10 days of the sanction.

The court also approved a consideration of N3.18 per share or 18 Providus Bank shares of 50 kobo each for every 17 Unity Bank shares held by shareholders.

The Court, therefore, ordered the dissolution of the board of Unity Bank Plc without winding up the institution and approved the adoption of a new name, Providus-Unity Bank Limited.

1 COMMENT

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