Owners of Daily Times of Nigeria, DTN, Folio Communications Limited has welcomed the takeover of Daily Times of Nigeria by the Asset Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON, stating that the intervention will stop the dissipation of heritage newspaper’s assets by some property scavengers in their track.
It, however, stated that the contest as to who owns Daily Times is an exercise in futility since Folio Communications Limited “bought and fully paid” for the medium in 2004 through a widely publicised and transparent privatisation process and recieved DTN from the Bureau of Public Enterprises.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by its Media/Publicity Adviser, Bonaventure Melah, Folio Communications Ltd said it has resuscitated and transformed DTN from a moribund entity to a thriving firm that is now a much-sought-after bride in the media industry.
It stated that it did all this despite series of litigations and other forms of distractions the company has faced these past years and the state of DTN’s equipment which were completely obsolete and unserviceable when the
The statement reads, “It is noteworthy to state here that on acquisition of Daily Times of Nigeria and in line with our technical bid, DTN operation was unbundled into Entertainment/Lifestyle (Miss Nigeria}; Publications and Assets Management.
“While Assets and Liabilities remained in the tradename of DTN as a going concern with clear mandate to manage assets and liabilities, Publications and Lifestyle/Entertainment were moved under direct management of Folio Communications Limited without encumbrances.
“We need to mention also that on acquisition of Daily Times, we inherited more than 150 disputes worth over N5billion in contingent liability with net asset of about N2billion.
“Folio has successfully managed this portfolios with a net asset value of over N7billion and AMCON has the only major liability in the books which is less than 20% of DTN asset value which taken out would still leave DTN as a healthy Company.
“In addition, Folio has for the past five (5) years been consistent in the publication of this legacy newspaper (DTN) while Daily Times online version is now at the forefront among credible and reliable sources of breaking and vital news.
“We therefore assure the public that DTN will continue to be on your newsstand everyday enriched with quality news content and in classical design that is fit for only Nigeria’s best media brand. This is even as we pledge to give maximum support to the DTN Receiver/Manager throughout the period of this assignment.”
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