Is Bank Of Nevis Int. Chief Prest hard-pressed?

An Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court August 16, 2019 filing by Blue Lagoon Management Ltd., a Belize company, claiming $150,000 worth in shares in the new ownership in the Bank Of Nevis International Ltd. (BONI), came some four and a half months before the new ownership of the international bank became effective.

The Observer attempted to contact BONI’s Managing Director Michael J Prest several times this week, but he didn’t return our calls or respond to our messages.

To get an idea of what to expect in any challenge to Mr. Prest, the Observer made contact with a past colleague and sometimes adversary of his.

“He is the most calculated businessman that I have ever known”, the source told the Observer, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“You can tell that his brain is always working. Every action and everything that he says; every move is well thought out and well calibrated. He does more observing and listening than speaking. The toughest negotiator the industry produced. You go up against him, and when you think that he has backed off, is when he comes on like a tonne of brick. He grinds his opponents into submission. He goes quiet on you, behaving as though he has a hundred years to spare, then out of the blue he attacks,” our source said.

Prest became Managing Director of The Bank of Nevis International Ltd. on January 3 ,2020, following a December 29th 2019 announcement by

The Bank of Nevis Limited that read that the bank had entered into an agreement with Petrodel Investment Advisers (Nevis) Limited (PIAN), a Nevis-registered company, for the purchase of the banking operations of Bank of Nevis International Limited. “PIAN will own one hundred percent (100%) shares of Bank Of Nevis International Limited and will continue to operate the Bank under its existing name”.

The sale was executed on 31st December 2019.

March 5th this year, the Bank of Nevis International, otherwise referred to as BONI, acquired over 1.9 million ordinary shares, representing 24.08 per cent stake in Investrust of the African country, Zambia.

Prest in a speech at an event in April hosted by Edgar Lungu, President of Zambia, said that BONI’s involvement in Investrust would allow investments in natural resources in that country to be scaled up twentyfold.

Last month, the bank’s sister company, Bank Of Nevis International Trust Services (BONITS) announced that it has been approved to promote the island of St. Lucia’s Citizen By Investment Programme.

The launch of Citizenship Investment Programme (CIP) products to St. Lucia by BONITS, followed the announced launch of the entity’s first overseas office in Dubai in April 2021, as the organisation continues to grow its geographic footprint and focus on providing global clients with Migration Investment solutions that meet their changing demands.

The Bank of Nevis International Limited was incorporated under the Nevis Companies Ordinance, Cap 7.06 of the laws of St. Christopher and Nevis, on April 29th, 1998 and commenced operations on July 1st, 1998.

According to a 2010 post by Muhtar Bakare in “Oil and Gas Tanzania”, Michael Prest was “the chief executive officer of Petrodel Resources Limited but was not well-known outside business circles, but he is well-regarded in the exclusive and close-knit world of international independent oil trading”.

Prest is Nigerian, but “not the typical successful Nigerian businessman. He avoids flamboyance and prefers to keep a low profile”, according to the Bakare article.

He is currently 57, and has completed a lot in this life.

Bakare describes Prest as having completed four international marathons, and being “lean, wiry, possessed of a body toned by self-discipline and an aura of incredible calm and self-control”.

“Mr. Prest is from a prominent Warri family. His grandfather was a judge and minister for communication in the first republic, his father was a lawyer, chief of staff and special adviser to President Shehu Shagari. He speaks of his family in reverential tones,” according to Bakare, who interviewed him.

“I wouldn’t be here today without the sacrifices my parents made for me.”

Mr. Prest went to public school in England, considered becoming a priest and gave up a place at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London to read law at the then University of Ife.

“That was the first time in my life where I really was put in an arena where people wanted to succeed. I had experienced adversity but I’d never had it right in my face, and I think it was the first time in my life where I got a chance to understand who I was in the context of my own history,” Prest told Bakare.

He sees himself as an introvert, and Bakare said that Mr. Prest admits to a restless spirit. He was called to the bar as a lawyer in 1984 and went into legal practice, but acted on the urge to do something bigger.

“I was impatient because at that time a lot of my friends were getting involved in the global markets. Although, I didn’t understand what it was at the time, I knew there was some momentum building, and that young people were making some fairly big decisions. So, I left Nigeria in 1986, not knowing what I was going to do, but I had this energy,” Prest told Bakare.

“You have to be phlegmatic about failure. When you were young and you had those discos and the boys would stand on this end of the room and the girls would stand over there, I was always that child, as ugly and as short as I am, who would walk across and ask the most beautiful girl in the room to dance,” Bakare quoted him.

His sister Helen Prest, who was at the time Miss Nigeria, was also at the same university at the time as Prest, showed him off as her well-spoken, confident always, well-dressed younger brother. That increased his popularity.

“My brother has always been very determined and focused,” said Helen Prest-Ajayi in an interview with Bakare. “He is very much the same now as he was then. He always knew what he wanted to do and where he was going.”

An old school friend’s reference resulted in Prest being interviewed and hired by the Phillip Brothers (Salomon Brothers) and he was hired as a soft commodities trader covering Africa, Eastern Europe and China.

After four years of successful trading, he moved to the oil section as an apprentice to John Brunner, one of the most influential physical oil traders of his time, who took Mr. Prest under his wing.

Prest opened up to Bakare about his apprentice days.

“I was boy-boy to John Brunner. He asked me to make the tea, I’d make the tea. I met the top echelon of NNPC through him. NNPC was going to buy a refinery; he made me an integral part of the discovery and negotiation process. So I got the best education, from the best, at the time, on how to operate in the oil business.”

Prest made a name for himself in the world of high-rolling oil trading as a calm and shrewd negotiator.

He took his father’s death in 1993 hard, and took over the role as the leader of the family and ensured that his two younger brothers finished university. His father was only 56 when he died.

Prest said in his interview with Bakare, “My father taught me: Never die until they kill you. Always work hard. Look after your siblings because it’s your people, who when you have a problem will save you. And most importantly, he taught me from a very young age; know who you really are; not that image you project to people.”

Prest cemented himself as a star at John Brunner’s. The 1990s were fierce years in the oil trading business and traders knew each other, and the Rich brothers topped that business.

Prest soon came to the attention of oil trading legend Marc Rich, who reached out to him in 1996, according to Bakare’s blog.

“If you were in oil trading, there were two companies or two individuals you always wanted to have worked for because you hoped some of the aura would rub off on you. One was Phillip Brothers, and the other one was Mr. Marc Rich. Despite all the stories you hear about him, if you’re in oil trading, you don’t get any bigger personality than Marc. So, when he was thinking of creating a new business, for him to have me in mind…It was simply a call I had to take…but it was a double-edged sword, because…I know what the world says about him.”

“The only thing I will say is; there’s a human side to this man…a lot of people feel like they haven’t been given an opportunity for whatever reason…and to find an iconic figure, who didn’t care that I was from Nigeria. He didn’t care that you were black, white, Indian or Muslim. He just wanted to know, can you stay the course and can you cut the deal? Can you look him in the eye? Yes or No?” Prest told Bakare.

Bakare quoted the following sources in the comments below;

“The art of the Rich deal according to a 2005 Businessweek article is: Do whatever it takes. The magazine went on: “Rich is notorious for trading with Iran during the hostage crisis, South Africa during apartheid, and Cuba and Libya during U.S. trade embargoes.”

“The Rich Boys, as his protégés have been called by Businessweek, form the most “powerful informal network of independent commodities traders on earth… .” Companies associated with Marc Rich and his protégés include, Glencore, Trafigura and Vitol, which do very brisk business in Nigeria.”

He worked for Marc Rich between 1996 and 2001; at one point running a global business with 400 employees and an annual turnover of $14 billion.

“Mr. Prest’s tenure at Marc Rich heralded the introduction of many young Nigerians and Africans into the company and as counterparties to the company. Many of them are still active today in the oil industry across the continent,” Bakare wrote.

Prest told Bakare, “Marc took a great interest in me and spent hours upon hours in his office in Zug literally teaching me and keeping me on my toes… he then allowed me to run his company trading crude oil and all the derivative products. He respected hard work and most of all valued loyalty”.

Rich ran enterprises that brokered oil, gold, sugar, grain, aluminum and nickel. He even sold copper to the U.S. mint until lawmakers found out about it, according to The Chicago Tribune.

Marc Rich died in June 2013.

Early in 2002, Michael Prest felt that he had learned all he possibly could from Marc Rich, so he lounged out on his own and started Petrodel.

“Don’t forget I’d been an employee since 1986. It’s the experience which I think, money can’t buy. I really do understand the oil business. Wake me up at any time of the day. In this sector, when I talk; I know what I’m talking about. I don’t want to seem arrogant when I say this but, if you had to pick 5-10 personalities in the oil trading business, my name would be there,” Prest told Bakare.

“My father made a point of telling everybody he knew in government; this is my son. Everywhere I went, they would give me an audience. So when I came home, my foot was already in the door. Not just because of me, but people knew my dad and they knew my grandfather, they knew my mother and they knew my sister…Without their sacrifices I would not be where I am today…truth be told, I had to do very little,” Prest related to Bakare.

By 2010, Petrodel had diversified interests in real estate, leisure and hospitality.

Prest opined then that Petrodel would thrive, so long as it continued to add value to its host communities and invest in people:

“We haven’t got to that point yet and we will only get to that point when the wheels of industry are driven by the resolute and the bold, who have now said to themselves, that theirs is a sacrifice where the benefit is a legacy they leave behind for our children.”