Silverbird and AMCON – What happens next?

Silverbird cinemas takes the credit for reviving Nigeria’s cinema culture and taking it to a new level. Because of this, they have a special place in the hearts of Nigerians.



This morning, however, we woke up to the news that Silverbird assets belonging to its 3 companies – Silverbird Productions, Silverbird Showtime, and Silverbird Showtime and Silverbird properties in Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Abuja have been taken over by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) as a result of debts owed said to be about N11 billion.

First off, how did Silverbird get here?

Between 2005 and 2007 loans were gotten from Union Bank for the purposes of building the cinema chain, but those loans eventually became classified as ‘non-performing loans’ (NPLs) as a result of the inability of the Bruces to service them.

In order for the bank to continue operation, those loans and other NPLs were sold to AMCON – set up in 2010 for that purpose – at a discount. This happened in 2011.

Still, the Bruces did not service the loans, and after several notices, AMCON got a court order to take over Silverbird property. The matter is even more interesting because Ben Murray-Bruce is said to have given a personal guarantee backing the loans, meaning that his assets can be used to service them.