Chinese firm moves to seize, sell Nigerian assets in Europe over $70 Million arbitration

Zhongshang Fucheng Industrial Investment Ltd, a Chinese investment group, has ramped up efforts to seize and sell Nigerian assets in Europe and North America to recover up to $70 million from a 2021 arbitration verdict.

The firm has reportedly taken possession of two residential properties linked to the Nigerian government in Liverpool, United Kingdom, as part of its bid to enforce the arbitration judgment. Plans are now underway to list these properties for sale on the global online marketplace eBay, according to sources familiar with the situation.

This move follows Nigeria’s failure to settle the arbitration award handed down in 2021, prompting Zhongshang Fucheng to take legal actions to reclaim its funds.

The properties, 15, Aigburth Hall Road, Liverpool and Beech Lodge, 49, Calderstones Road, Liverpool, were targeted after a December 2021 British court order gave Zhongshang executives the power to seize Nigerian assets in the UK to retrieve the $70 million payment, which remained outstanding as of August 20, 2024, with two per cent monthly interest accruals.

Zhongshang was awarded $55,675,000 plus interest of $9,400,000 and costs of £2,864,445 as of the date of the arbitration verdict on March 26, 2021, court documents said. The case stemmed from a dispute between Zhongshang and Ogun State. The firm said the state violated a 2001 trade treaty between Nigeria and China when its rights to a free trade zone were rescinded in 2016.

The company dragged Nigeria before the arbitration panel in the UK in 2018, alleging that Nigeria allowed its federal organs like the police, immigration and export processing authority to be deployed by Ogun State without due process. Court documents said two Zhongshang executives were expelled from Nigeria between mid and late 2016 after one of them had allegedly been detained and tortured by the police.

The case has once again thrown Nigeria into confusion, barely months after the country luckily escaped a similar arbitration decision that awarded over $11 billion to a consortium called P&ID. The arbitration verdict was thrown out after it was later discovered that P&ID owners were involved in bribery and corruption.

However, the Zhongshang case appeared different, with several European courts already granted enforcement orders in the UK, Belgium, France and other countries, where Nigerian-owned jets and other assets are being tracked down. An appellate panel recently declined to grant Nigeria sovereign immunity protection over Zhongshang’s recovery efforts in the United States.

A consultant working with Zhongshang said the company has been working to put the two Liverpool houses up for sale, including on eBay, where the source said up to $2.2 million would be asked for both.

“They said the value of both properties should be around $2.2 million, so they already put together a plan to sell them to willing buyers,” the consultant said under anonymity to discuss client deliberations. “Some websites like eBay might bring buyers faster than other methods.”

Even though the properties belonged to Nigeria, they were seized because they weren’t listed as Nigerian diplomatic or consular assets. The Gazette learnt that those currently occupying the properties had no ties to the Nigerian mission in the UK. It was unclear when Nigeria bought the assets, but a senior judge said its officials had regularly rented out both places to guests.

In her June 14, 2024, ruling allowing Zhongshang to seize the buildings from Nigeria, Master Lisa Sullivan of the UK High Court, King’s Bench Division, said: “The properties are currently used for the purpose of leases to residential tenants unconnected with Nigeria and its mission. Those are commercial purposes for the purpose of s13(4) of the SIA and therefore the enforcement against the properties is not barred by state immunity.”

The source said the sale wouldn’t be done in secret because the Nigerian people deserved to know how much all recovered assets were being sold until the full amount had been recovered.

“Zhongshang promised to be transparent with the sale because of the keen public interest of Nigerians in the matter,” the consultant added.