Central Bank Says Investors Have Bid for Bailed-Out Banks

Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Lamido Sanusi said interested investors submitted bids for distressed Nigerian lenders ahead of a July 31 deadline.

“I can confirm that there are parties interested in combining with each and every one of the banks,” Sanusi told reporters today in the capital, Abuja. “The process is being driven by the boards of directors of the banks.”

Last year the central bank had to rescue 10 of Nigeria’s lenders by injecting 620 billion naira ($4.1 billion) of capital into them. Sanusi fired the chief executive officers of eight of the West African nation’s lenders, called for interested parties to bid for stakes in the banks and created the Asset Management Corp. of Nigeria, or Amcon, which will buy bad debts. Foreign and local investors from First Bank of Nigeria Plc to South Africa’s Standard Bank Group Ltd. and FirstRand Ltd. registered to investigate buying shares.

“This is a confidential process,” Erik Larsen, a spokesman for Standard Bank, said today. The lender, which already has operations in Nigeria, doesn’t think it is “appropriate to comment” at this stage, according to Larsen.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-27/nigeria-central-bank-s-sanusi-says-investors-have-bid-for-bailed-out-banks.html