The House of Representatives on Wednesday okayed the sale of
Polaris Bank, noting that the acquisition followed laid down procedure and the
relevant presidential approval.
A statement issued by the Director, Corporate Communications
Department at the Central Bank of Nigeria, OsitaNwanisobi, on behalf of the CBN
and AMCON disclosed that SCIL had paid an upfront consideration of N50bn to
acquire 100 per cent of the equity of Polaris Bank, and had also accepted the
terms of the agreement which include the full repayment of the sum of N1.31tn,
being the consideration bonds injected.
According to the statement, “The CBN thus received an
immediate return for the value it has created in Polaris Bank during the
stabilisation period, as well as ensuring that all funds originally provided to
support the intervention are recovered.
“The sale was coordinated by a Divestment Committee (the
‘Committee’) comprising representatives of the CBN and AMCON, and advised by
legal and financial consultants. The committee conducted a sale process by
‘private treaty’, as provided in Section 34(5) of the AMCON Act to avoid
negative speculations, retain value and preserve financial system stability.
“In the process, parties who had formally expressed an
interest in acquiring Polaris Bank, subsequent to the CBN intervention in 2018,
were invited to submit financial and technical proposals. Invitations to submit
proposals were sent to 25 pre-qualified interested parties, out of which three
parties eventually submitted final purchase proposals following technical
evaluation.
“All submissions were subject to a rigorous transaction
process from which SCIL emerged as the preferred bidder having presented the
most comprehensive technical/financial purchase proposal as well as the highest
rated growth plans for Polaris Bank.”
Meanwhile, the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, was quoted
as saying that the sale of the bank “marks the completion of a landmark
intervention in a strategic institution in the Nigerian banking sector by the
CBN and AMCON.”
He commended the outgoing board and management for their
vital role since the bridge bank was established.
According to the governor, the process had provided the CBN
with an unprecedented opportunity to recover its intervention funds in full and
promote financial stability and inclusive growth.
It would be recalled that Polaris had been operating as a
bridge bank since 2018 when the CBN intervened to revoke the licence of the
former Skye Bank Plc and established Polaris Bank to assume its assets and
certain liabilities.
As part of the CBN intervention, consideration bonds with a
face value of N898bn (future value of N1.31tn) was injected into the bridge
bank through AMCON, to be repaid over a 25-year period.
“The bank noted that the actions were taken to prevent the
imminent collapse of the bank, enable its stabilisation and recovery, protect
depositors’ fund, prevent job losses and preserve systemic financial stability.
Speaking on the acquisition on Wednesday, the Chairman of
the Ad-hoc Committee investigating the saleof Polaris Bank, Hon. Henry Nwawuba,
said that the lawmakers during the scrutiny of various documents and extant
regulatory process on the sale of the bank, discovered that there were
evidences of substantial compliance with the process.
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