Jude Nwauzor, spokesman of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), has made known the corporation’s plan to sell Polaris Bank to new investors.
Nwauzor who was quoted by Reuters, said AMCON is currently seeking new investors for the Polaris Bank’s takeover after Nigeria’s forthcoming general elections. According to the spokesman, AMCON also tends to take the stock of the nationalised lender’s assets ahead of the intended sale.
Nwauzor said, “The election season has slowed down things. We would advertise for expressions of interest from investors after elections and commence the sale process.”
As we exclusively reported, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced an immediate revocation of Skye Bank Plc’s operating license. The bank’s share capital had run into negative territory due to bad loan deals. It was also in urgent need of recapitalisation which its shareholders could not achieve.
As part of this development, therefore, the bank’s name was changed to Polaris Bank Limited; a bridge bank which is to oversee the liquidated entity until AMCON finds a new buyer.
Governor Godwin Emefiele of the CBN, explained the legal reason behind the bank’s name change. According to him, the apex bank and the Federal Government had invested close to N800 billion in the bank.
“having gotten to a point where the central bank of nigeria and the federal government has invested close to n800 billion in this bank, at some point, it had to be seen to be owned by the cbn until we find investors that will be willing to pay a fair price for the business. that is the compelling reason the name had to change.
so, we did not just give the bank a sexy name. the name had to be changed for legal reasons.” – emefiele
Revealing why AMCON intervened in the Skye Bank issue, Kuru said it was due to a lot of systemic issues, including saving more than 5,000 jobs and almost N1 trillion in deposits.