The Board of Directors of Ikeja Hotels Plc has announced the appointment of Mr Theophilus Eniola Netufo as the Acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company. This followed the approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with effect from March 23, 2020.
The appointment was announced in a notification which was sent by the company to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on March 26, 2020, and signed by Chisom Umeofia on behalf of Punuka Nominees Ltd, who act as the Company Secretary.
Theophilus Eniola Netufo is a chartered accountant with over three decades of experience in accounting, auditing, taxation and general management services in Nigeria.
He started his career as an audit trainee and audit senior with S.S. Akemikhe and Co (Chartered Accountants). He was a financial accountant and later account manager with S.C. Johnson Wax Nigeria Ltd. He was also the financial analysis manager at Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited (Africa Division Officer).
He has worked as the Chief Finance Officer of Ikeja Hotel Group and more recently as the Chief Operating Officer of Ikeja Hotel Plc.
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He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN), a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management, fellow International Institute of Certified Forensic Accountants and also an active member of the Institute of Directors (IOD).
It could be recalled that in May 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dissolved the board of Ikeja Hotels Plc, ordered a forensic investigation into the affairs of the company and appointed Chief Anthony Idigbe (SAN) as the interim chairman.
The apex capital market regulator sacked the board due to unresolved internal crisis involving some majority shareholders of Ikeja Hotels Plc, in apparent reference to the squabbles within the Ibru family, which holds the largest shareholdings in the company.
This was after the NSE had suspended trading on the shares of the company in November 2016 due to the high-stake dispute in the Ibru family. This was done in order to safeguard the investments of shareholders of Ikeja Hotel Plc following the continued dispute between the major shareholders which has negatively impacted on the company’s governance structure”.
Ikeja Hotels, incorporated in 1972 and quoted on the NSE in 2007, controls a chain of hotels directly and through other subsidiaries and affiliates, including Tourist Company of Nigeria (TCN) Plc and Capital Hotel Plc., Ikeja Hotel, Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos. TCN owns Federal Palace Hotel while Capital Hotel owns Abuja Sheraton Hotel. The Ibru family owns the single largest individual shareholding.