AMCON keeps mute five months after proposed sell of  Keystone Bank

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) who had announced its interest to divest 100 percent stake in the Keystone Bank Limited, since Monday, February15, has remained mute five months after the pronouncement.

Keystone Bank, the last of the three nationalised banks is yet to be sold, and this has continue to give current staffers of the bank a sleepless night, as most of them are now in dilemma.

Investigation by Daily Times of Nigeria has it that few proactive staff of the bank have begun job hunt in earnest, due to the incessant job insecurity that has befall the banking industry in recent time, coupled with the long silence by the corporation.

We further gathered that months after nothing has been done by the AMCON, tension has continue to rise among the employees of the bank as high level of uncertainty surrounding the sales of the lender was said to be responsible for that.

However, AMCON had since February this year said that it was seeking for prospective investors to buy the last of the bridged banks, after it had sold Mainstreet Bank Limited to Skye Bank Plc, and Enterprise Bank Limited to Heritage Bank.

The Federal Government had in 2011 nationalised Afribank Plc, Spring Bank Plc and Bank PHB and changed their names to Mainstreet Bank, Enterprise Bank and Keystone Bank, respectively.

As the same month, the corporation had announced that had asked prospective buyers to submit their bids by March 4, 2015, while Citibank Nigeria and FBN Capital have been appointed as financial advisers to manage the Keystone Bank sale process.

The bad debt manager also asked prospective investors to submit bids, showing evidence of credibility and eligibility for the transaction. Although, based on audited account as of June 2015, Keystone Bank has total assets of N317.6billion ($1.60billion), equity of N18.9billion and a loan portfolio of N98.2billion, according to Reuters report. By December 31, 2015, the bank had 156 branches across the country with four subsidiaries, two of which are international, AMCON said in the notice.

It would recall that AMCON was set up in 2010 to absorb non-performing loans in exchange for government bonds, after the Central Bank of Nigeria had injected $4bn to rescue nine banks from collapse.