Enterprise Bank was created from the defunct Spring
Bank, while Keystone Bank Limited and Mainstreet
Bank Limited emerged from Bank PHB and Afribank
respectively in 2011 by the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) following the expiration of the deadline given
to a number of sick banks to get buyers.
The corporation had acquired them in August 2011,
after the intervention by the Nigeria Deposit
Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and the CBN.
Although the three banks have demonstrated their
readiness to put their recent history behind them and
compete favourably with their peers, AMCON
insisted it must follow the timetable for the sale of the
banks, which it drew in 2011 when the affected banks
were bridged.
The process, expected to be concluded by the third
quarter of 2014, according to AMCON, would lead to
the full divestment of its shares in the three banks.
AMCON, the main shareholder for the three banks,
announced the plan to start the process by offering
Enterprise Bank for sale in June. The corporation,
which disclosed this in a statement, also explained
that the sale of Keystone Bank Limited and
Mainstreet Bank Limited would follow sequentially in
order to ensure orderly and transparent transactions.
AMCON’s Managing Director Mustafa Chike-Obi,
who spoke to reporters on the sale of the banks,
explained that Enterprise Bank was picked because it
is the smallest of the three affected banks.
“Enterprise Bank is the smallest and the cleanest of
the three banks and anything learnt from the process
of its sale can be applied in subsequent efforts. There
is nothing magical about it,” he said. No Official
Discussion with Potential Buyers Yet
When asked about the number of investors seeking to
buy the bank, Chike-Obi said AMCON has not been
discussing with any investors officially, given the fact
that such negotiations could only start after the
report of the financial advisers to the bank is
submitted.
According to him, financial advisers to work on the
sale of Enterprise Bank would be announced in two
weeks’ time while the sale of the bank is to take place
in less than 30 days.
He, however, admitted that despite the
determination of AMCON to stick to its timetable,
quite a number of people and organisations, at
informal level, have expressed their interest in buying
over the banks.
“It is true that we have been receiving calls from
interested investors,” Chike-Obi said.
Analysts of the unfolding development, however,
pointed out that the decision of the AMCON to use
Enterprise Bank as a launch pad in its drive to divest
from the bridged banks must have informed why it is
the only bank of the bridged banks to make public its
financial reports as it revealed that its gross earnings
increased significantly to N40.4billion as at
December 2012, compared to the N10.5 billion
achieved in the five-month period ended 2011.