AMCON To Unveil New Owner Of Keystone Bank Soon

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The new owner of Keystone Bank would be announced very soon, Managing Director of Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Mr Ahmed Kuru, has disclosed.

Mr Kuru, in an exclusive interview with Daily Trust, said the propose would “certainly” be concluded before the end of 2016.

“Certainly, before the end of the year the process will be concluded,” he assured, explaining that about 98 percent of the transactions had already been completed.

Explaining further, the AMCON boss said selling a bank was not like selling a factory because there are many stakeholders involved.

“So, it follows rigorous technical, legal and regulatory processes, particularly given the government structure that we have now. Things must be done properly,” he said in the interview to be published this week.

Speaking on the call by some Nigerians to invest in the aviation industry and intervene in the ailing Aero Contractors Airline, Mr Kuru said AMCON didn’t have money to invest in business or capacity to management businesses.

“Just like we buy asset in oil and gas, real estate and financial sector, we also bought from the aviation industry. So we will try to operate within our framework, because AMCON is not an entity that has government money in it. We don’t have government money in AMCON, the money we have is debt, which we have to pay back,” he explained.

He said Aero had a very strong management and were responsible for the day-to-day running of the business, adding, however that they may have some challenges like any other aviation company.

On the condition of banks, Mr Kuru said AMCON was not a regulator, but a special purpose vehicle set up by government to address the economic crises that hit the country between 2008 and 2009. He, however said going by the report from the regulators of the banking industry, the banks were doing well.