A day after they were sealed by officials of As­sets Management Cor­poration of Nigeria (AM­CON) over alleged loan default, some subsidiar­ies of Silverbird Group reopened for business on the afternoon of Friday, June 24, with apologies to their “viewers, listeners and online subscribers.”

AMCON, last Thurs­day, effected a court or­der to take possession of Silverbird Galleria Limit­ed, Silverbird Promotions Limited, and Silverbird Showtime Limited, all part of the media group owned by businessman and politician, Ben Mur­ray-Bruce, and his family.

The takeover was ne­cessitated by an alleged failure of the three com­panies to repay about N11 billion credit they ob­tained from Union Bank of Nigeria.

AMCON, a federal gov­ernment-backed agency, established to manage delinquent loans of big firms and individuals, said it had purchased all the debts as part of a bail­out deal it reached with Union Bank when it was in distress.

The three businesses, with offices in Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt, were emblazoned with red caveats that informed the general public that they had been taken over by the government.

In his reaction to the takeover, Mr. Murray- Bruce said his businesses are going through “tough times.” He sued for calm, saying, “the situation is being resolved and things will be back to normal.”

That much came to pass on Friday, at least, in operational context, when Silverbird Televi­sion and Rhythm FM, two of the many subsid­iaries of the group, an­nounced their return on air.

“We thank you for your patience and un­derstanding at this time. But Murray-Bruce and his brothers would not be in charge of running the businesses,” said Kunle Adegoke, an attor­ney working with Muiz Banire, the debt recov­ery manager overseeing the takeover. Adegoke told Premium Times on Friday evening that the reopening of the busi­nesses should not come as a surprise to Nigeri­ans. He said they were only repossessed by the authorities, but, not liq­uidated. The lawyer said AMCON would continue to superintend the affairs of the businesses in order to make them more ef­fective and profitable but added that Murray-Bruce and his brothers would be carried along in the day-to-day running of the businesses.

“That is true. The pur­pose of Receivership is to ensure the businesses are run consistently and to recover the loan that is outstanding against the three companies.

“The receiver has taken over the finances of the organisation together with the administrative office,” Adegoke said.