Ethiopian Court Order Liquidates Eritrean Owned Bank Monday, 21 November 2011 10:19
Meron Tekleberhan
Ethiopian Business News - Banking and Finance
A federal court in Ethiopia ordered Horn International Bank to be stricken from the commercial register last Wednesday. Horn International Bank was under formation by Eritrean majority share holders before the onset of the Ethio-Eritrean war.
The liquidator, Bibawi and Company, was instructed to transfer the money it was administering to the National Bank of Ethiopia. The National Bank will pay the money to shareholders on presentation of relevant evidentiary documents.
All documents of Horn International Bank are also to be transferred to the central bank.
The court ordered the national bank to pay off creditors of the dissolved bank on the basis of the liquidation report and receipt of appropriate documentation.
The final decision from the court came after a petition from the liquidator asking the bank to be stricken of the commercial register after completing the dissolution process. The liquidator also asked the court to instruct the uncollected money to be deposited in a bank according to the court order.
The liquidation report stated that HIB has just over 10.6 million birr to be collected by 960 shareholders and creditors. The liquidation process had proved to be complicated and took 12 years to complete.
The NBE had filed a request for the dissolution and liquidation of the bank in Federal court 12 years ago claiming the bank had falsified the nationality of the founding members claiming they were Ethiopians when in fact they were Eritrean according to the claim filed by Tilahun Woldemariam, attorney of NBE.
The Eritrean government had taken the matter to the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission of the UN claiming that Ethiopia arbitrarily revoked the bank’s license but the claim was dismissed in the absence of evidence.
Source: The Reporter
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