An FCT High Court sitting at Maitama has restrained the owners of Shoprite malls from selling off their assets in Nigeria.
Justice Peter Kekemeke issued the interim injunction on November 6 stopping the planned sale of the assets, pending the hearing and determination of a suit that was brought before it by three claimants.
The order arose from a motion marked: FCT/HC/CV/0224/23, which the claimants – Grand Towers Realty Ltd, Grand Towers Plc and Nze Chidi Duru – who are the Nigerian partners to Novare Investment (PTY) Ltd, owners of Shoprite, filed through their team of lawyers led by Darlington Ozurumba.
The court injunction is the latest in the lingering legal battle between Novare Investment (PTY) Limited and its Nigerian partners since 2017, following its plans to divest from Nigeria, citing supply chain disruptions and difficulty in the repatriation of funds.
Other parties joined as defendants in the suit are Novare Equity Partners (Proprietary Ltd), Novare Fund Management Ltd, Novare Africa Fund Plc and Derick Roper.
Delivering his ruling on the motion ex-parte, Justice Kekemeke restrained “agents, subsidiaries, attorneys, assignees, privies or howsoever described from selling, disposing-off, leasing, transferring of interest or by howsoever described of the properties and assets situate and known as:
“Novare Mall, Lagos; Novare Mall, Sangotade, Lagos; Novare Gateway Mall, Musa Yar’Adua Expressway (Airport Road), Lugbe District, FCT; Novare Mall, Apo, Murtala Mohammed Expressway, Abuja; Novare Central Mall, Wuse Zone 5, FCT-Abuja and all other Novare Malls under construction in Nigeria pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”