Interesting......Fidelity, Skye, Heritage jostle to buy Enterprise Bank

Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo

Fidelity Bank Plc, Skye Bank Plc and Heritage Bank are among the five banks shortlisted to buy Enterprise Bank by the Asset Management Corporation, a source close to the deal disclosed to our correspondent on Wednesday.

AMCON sources and top bank executives told our correspondent on Tuesday that any of the five banks might emerge the final buyer of the nationalised bank.

Enterprise Bank is one of the three nationalised banks created after the 2009 banking crisis, which saw the nationalisation of Afribank Plc, Bank PHB Plc and Spring Bank Plc.

The three bridge banks created from the failed banks are Enterprise Bank, Mainstreet Bank and Keystone Bank.

“It is quite a very fierce and keen final contest. But at least one of the five banks will buy Enterprise Bank. But Fidelity Bank, Skye Bank and Heritage Bank are among the top contenders,” a source close to the deal told our correspondent under the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter.

The Managing Director, AMCON, Mr. Chike-Obi, had in an exclusive interview with our correspondent on Tuesday, said the successful buyer of Enterprise Bank would be announced next week, possibly on Monday.

He said seven buyers were initially shortlisted to buy Enterprise Bank. However, two of the buyers dropped out.

Over 20 intending buyers had submitted bids to buy Enterprise Bank.

Chike-Obi had told our correspondent, “The process always starts with a lot of prospective buyers and AMCON-appointed advisers always do some interactions with them and we narrow it down based on a number of objective criteria.

“For Enterprise Bank, the number was cut down to seven; two opted out and we are down to five,”

The amount the successful buyer will pay was yet to be known as of the time of filing this report but top bankers said Enterprise Bank was worth some hundreds of billions of naira.

Chike-Obi said the new buyer would take over AMCON’s 100 per cent stake in the bank.

AMCON had commenced the sale of Enterprise Bank and Mainstreet Bank last year and early this year, respectively.

The AMCON managing director had earlier said the sale process of the two banks would be completed on September 15, 2014, after which the sale of Keystone Bank would begin.

He, however, told our correspondent on Tuesday, “Mainstreet Bank may be a little bit delayed but may be still within the time frame of the bond redemption we set for ourselves, that is October 31. But I will probably be announcing the results of the Enterprise Bank process next week.”

Chike-Obi stated that AMCON would not commence the sale of Keystone Bank immediately after the sale of Enterprise and Mainstreet banks.

He explained, “We will review the Keystone Bank situation after the bond redemption….But right now, our plans have been made very clear and public; we have said we will divest from Enterprise Bank, Mainstreet Bank, ETI and Union Bank. We have done some other share sales but nothing significant.”

The Central Bank of Nigeria had on August 5, 2011 revoked the operating licences of Afribank, Spring Bank and Bank PHB, which it said did not show enough capacity and ability for recapitalisation.

In their place, the CBN, through the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation, established three bridge banks and transferred the assets and liabilities of the affected banks to the bridge banks.

Mainstreet Bank took over the assets and liabilities of Afribank; Keystone Bank assumed the assets and liabilities of Bank PHB; while Enterprise Bank took over Spring Bank.

Consequently, AMCON acquired from the NDIC the three bridge banks and injected N679bn into them to meet the minimum capital base of N25bn and the minimum capital adequacy ratio of 15 per cent.

Mainstreet Bank received N285bn; Keystone Bank, N283bn; and Enterprise Bank, N111bn