TOYIN SUBAIR, HiTV Boss |
The fully
Nigerian own pay satellite television, HITV is swimming in financial crisis,
First Weekly can authoritatively reveal.
According to an
insider, the troubled financial state of HITV can be traced to financial
indiscipline and flamboyant lifestyle of the Managing Director of the pay
television station, Mr. Toyin Subair.
The source
informed us that the big boy loves to live big, and all expenses incurred are
debited into the company's account.
First Weekly
learnt that anytime Mr. Subair travels out of the country, (which he does
regularly) he flies first class and lodges at most of the expensive hotels in
the country he visits. 'If it's a local flight in Nigeria
to either Abuja or Port-Harcourt from Lagos, Toyin Subair
rarely flies on commercial airlines. He always travels on a chartered flight,'
the source said. Our source also revealed that Subair has over 10 state of the
art wonders on wheels in his garage. According to investigations, the HITV boss
is currently building a N100 million naira private Cinema/ Theatre on Adeniran Ogunsanya Street,
Surulere, Lagos.
We gathered that
the young entrepreneur celebrated his birthday few weeks back in London and the company had to settle the bill of N5
million, which was the cost of the Champagne
consumed at the bash.
Toyin Subair's
expensive lifestyle has adversely affected the business as a visit to the
company's headquarters at Yaba, Lagos
shows that the place has now turned to a shadow of itself. According to an insider,
the late Managing Director of GT Bank, the late Tayo Aderinokun, who was one of
the strong financiers of the Pay TV, once warned Subair over his wasteful
spending.
Aderinokun
particularly complained about Subair's penchant for chattered plane for local
trips. Our source also disclosed that it was the same flamboyant lifestyle that
made one of Subair's financial backbones, the former governor of Lagos State,
Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to withdraw his money from the company.
Right now, HITV
is groaning under financial pains as it owes his staffers about four months
salaries while patronage is also getting low.
Meanwhile, we
gathered that Mr Subair is yet to change his flamboyant lifestyle, while there
are genuine fears that he may run HITV aground.