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Поточна версія на 18:50, 17 листопада 2017

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is no stranger to utilizing shell providers in offshore tax havens. The influential industrialist is a single of the prominent figures about the world whose names popped up in the infamous #PanamaPapers database as having hyperlinks with shell providers in notorious tax havens.


Documents from the leaked internal information of Panama-primarily based offshore provider, Mossack Fonseca, had, in 2016, linked Mr. Dangote, alongside his half-brother Sayyu Dantata, to at least 13 shell providers in Seychelles, a increasing offshore tax haven.


In 2015, this newspaper, in partnership with a French newspaper, Le Monde, also exposed Mr. Dangote as one particular of the owners of secretive foreign accounts with the Swiss branch of banking behemoth, HSBC.


But in what is maybe his greatest singular involvement with offshore entities but, Mr. Dangote has an equity worth $5.eight billion in Greenview International Corp., a Cayman Islands shell corporation, PREMIUM Instances can report.


The Nigerian businessman, who is Africa’s richest personality, is valued at $12.1 billion.

From Panama to the Cayman Islands


Documents obtained by PREMIUM Times from the leaked database of a worldwide offshore law firm, Appleby, as element of the ongoing Paradise Papers reporting, show that Greenview is a classic shell business, initially incorporated by Mr. Dangote in Panama in 1994.


The 1.9 terra byte data vault was obtained by the German newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung, and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ, in turn, shared the information with more than 380 journalists from 96 media organizations in 67 nations.


Documents show that a particular Vernon Emmanuel (who doubles as the president of the organization), Delio Mela and LiliaTovar De Leon were appointed nominee directors when the company was very first incorporated on July 16, 1994. Nominee directors are residents of a tax haven paid to hide identities of genuine owners of offshore providers.


The 3 directors resigned from the business on August 24, 2015, the similar day Mr. Dangote was named sole director and shareholder of the business.


On June 30, 2015, two months ahead of they resigned, the nominee directors, held a stakeholders meeting and agreed to transfer the jurisdiction of the corporation from Panama to the Cayman Island.


"The president of the firm the enterprise declared, in addition, that the goal of the meeting was to consider and approve the continua of the business under the jurisdiction of the Cayman Islands," the minutes of the meeting states.


The purpose for transferring the jurisdiction of the company from 1 offshore jurisdiction to yet another was not stated in the minutes but an analysis of the company’s 2013 financial statement provides some explanation.


According to a summary of Greenview’s 2013 monetary statement signed by Mr. Dangote, the chief finance officer of Dangote Industries Limited, Mustapha Ibrahim, and the chief operating officer, Olakunle Alake, the total equity held by Mr. Dangote in the enterprise as at January 2012 was $three billion. But by December 2013 the value of the corporation had virtually doubled to $5.8 billion.


As his offshore equity grew astronomically, Mr. Dangote most likely decided to move his assets to the Cayman Islands. Why he chose that Island to warehouse his assets remained unclear. But professionals suggest the Cayman Islands is a more liberal tax jurisdiction than most other notorious tax havens.


Professionals contemplate the Islands as the significant masquerade of offshore jurisdictions. While Panama is commonly seen as a mid-market jurisdiction, banks and investment advisors in the Cayman Islands focus on some of the largest trusts and higher-dollar private wealth management.


An additional incentive luring wealthy enterprise individuals like Mr. Dangote to the Cayman Islands is the exempted status granted offshore providers in the country. Under the country’s Providers Law, providers are either incorporated as an exempted firm or ordinary organization. Greenview is registered in the Cayman Islands as an exempted company with quantity 302375 on July 27, 2015.


As an exempted company, Greenview is not expected to have nominee directors. It is not needed to file information of its shareholders, not required to hold the annual meeting of its shareholders and is entitled to a tax exemption undertaking that protects it from any future review of the tax law for up to an initial 20 years, which could be extended to 30 years on unique application.


Its exempted status also permits Mr. Dangote’s business to simply move his equity in the business from the Cayman Islands to an additional jurisdiction that allows the transfer of business incorporated outside it.


Additionally, Mr. Dangote, who has been criticised for exploring loopholes in the pioneer status tax waiver granted his cement firm to spend as little tax as feasible in Nigeria, will not have to worry about the taxman breathing down his neck. Cayman Island has zero corporation tax. It does not call for offshore providers to spend earnings tax, capital achieve tax, inheritance tax, gift tax, and wealth tax.


When contacted for comments, Mr. Alake, who spoke on behalf of Dangote Industries Limited told PREMIUM Occasions that Greenview is not a Shell company. He explained that the company is a holding business for Mr. Dangote’s investment.


"It is an active organization registered in Cayman Island," he told PREMIUM Instances in Lagos.

"It is a business that owns a lot of investment in Nigeria. Greenview is a majority shareholder in Dangote Refinery. All international and neighborhood banks are carrying out enterprise with it. Dangote has not hidden any assets in a shell business all the assets he has are in Nigeria. It doesn’t matter to have the employees of Appleby as directors of Greenview."


Mr. Alake stated he was not confident exactly where PREMIUM Instances got the $5.8 billion equity held in Greenview. He, having said that, did not say what he believes was the precise equity held by Mr. Dangote in the firm.


"I don’t know exactly where you got your $five.8 billion from but I’m not going to affirm or disclose it," he stated.


When asked why Greenview was incorporated in Cayman Island and not in Nigeria where most of Mr. Dangote’s investments are domiciled, and exactly where it would be required to pay taxes on its investment, Mr Alake mentioned Greenview is not expected to spend taxes as the dividends it received from its investments have currently be charged withholding tax.


"The income a holding corporation gets is dividends via its subsidiaries," he stated. "The notion of withholding tax is ‘I’m essential by law to pay tax on your behalf.’ And the tax is removed from the supply."


But a former chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) told PREMIUM Occasions that it is not accurate that withholding tax is the only tax needed of holding entities.


"Dividends are just one type of income," the professional said. "Others include investment income, management fees and other income by virtue of the company performed. These other incomes are subject to Providers Revenue Tax.


"Yes, [withholding providers] are required to pay Company Revenue Tax (CIT). Having said that, where revenue includes dividends, withholding tax on the dividend is deemed to be a final tax. Such earnings is regarded as franked investment revenue."


Carlyle Sub-Saharan African Fund Restricted

Documents obtained in the Appleby database showed that Mr. Dangote also invested $50 million in a Mauritius-incorporated private equity fund, Carlyle Sub-Saharan Fund Restricted via Dangote Industries Restricted.


The fund, which holds a Mauritius Global Company Enterprise 1 (GBC1) license, in its confidential placement memorandum dated December 28, 2011, looking for $500 million investments, explained that the fund was required for "expansion capital investments throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, with a unique focus on South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya."


The promoters of the fund said the Class "A" ordinary shares it was providing was only readily available to "sophisticated investors".


A Class A ordinary share is commonly provided to a company’s management group and is accompanied by voting powers than a Class B share. This form of share aids retain the control of the organization in the hands of senior management executives.


"Founded in 2011 and headed by an knowledgeable group of Africans, Carlyle’s Sub-Saharan Africa investment advisory team, primarily based in Johannesburg, South Africa and Lagos, Nigeria, is a single of the most seasoned private equity teams on the African continent with over 50 years of combined private equity experience as nicely as substantial encounter in M&A, project finance, consulting and operations, such as 30 years in Sub-Saharan Africa," the business says of itself.


The minimum investment commitment allowed in the 5-year fund was $five million with a promise of a targeted gross return of 25 percent.


Some of the documents obtained showed that Mr. Dangote has the highest shares in the fund with ten,919,444 Class A ordinary shares. Some other investors in the fund are the African Development Banks with $50 million and with five,789,877 Class A shares, Old Mutual Life Assurance (South Africa) with $27.5m, Africa Reinsurance Corporation (Cameroun) with $5m and Sugar Business Pension Fund - $2m.


As a GBC1 company, the fund is only expected to pay just three percent in tax. But with the Double Taxation Treaties (DTT) that Mauritius signed with about 43 nations, investors in the fund even pay fewer taxes.