Enterprise Bank Ltd., the Nigerian lender taken over by the state in 2011, may be sold to a unit linked to Heritage Banking Co., with a second local institution next in line.
While HBC Investment Services is the preferred buyer, Nigeria’s Fidelity Bank Plc (FIDELITY) is the “reserve bidder for the acquisition of the entire issued and fully paid up ordinary shares of Enterprise Bank,” the Asset Management Corp., or Amcon, said in a statement yesterday.
“This process started with interest shown by 24 parties cutting across local and international bidders,” said Amcon, which is based in the capital, Abuja. The sale is being coordinated by a unit of Citigroup Inc. (C) and Vetiva Capital Management Ltd., it said.
Amcon was set up in 2010 to buy bad loans and took over three of the eight lenders it rescued as part of a 620 billion-naira ($3.8 billion) bailout. It has been preparing the sales of distressed assets held by Enterprise, Mainstreet Bank Ltd. and Keystone Bank Ltd. for the past three years, with Enterprise the first to be put up for sale.
Enterprise resumed operations in August 2011 “as a full-service commercial bank with a national banking license,” Amcon said. It has 160 branches and 177 automated teller machines in Africa’s largest economy with a population of more than 170 million people.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-12/nigeria-s-enterprise-bank-set-for-local-buyer-after-bids.html
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