Nigeria’s Heritage is Acquiring Enterprise Bank for $340 Million

Nigerian Heritage Banking Co. is paying 56.1 billion naira ($340 million) to acquire nationalised lender Enterprise Bank Ltd.

Bloomberg reports that Kayode Lambo, a spokesman for Asset Management Corp. of Nigeria, which is overseeing the sale of banks taken over by the state after the financial crisis, confirmed the price today.

Amcon on Sept. 2 named HBC Investment Services, a unit of Heritage Banking Co., as preferred bidder for Enterprise Bank, after 24 local and international bidders expressed interest in the lender.

The bad bank was set up in 2010 to buy non-performing loans and stabilize Nigeria’s banking industry after a debt crisis threatened it with collapse.

Lagos-based Amcon on Oct. 4 named Skye Bank Plc (SKYEBANK) the preferred buyer for Mainstreet Bank, the second of the nationalized lenders close to being sold. The third lender, Keystone Bank, will be sold later, it said.

Enterprise resumed operations in August 2011 “as a full-service commercial bank” operating 160 branches in the West African nation, according to Amcon. Heritage is a commercial lender operating in eleven locations, according to its website.