Sterling bank, initially in talks about the possible acquisition of Keystone bank, has backed out of the deal citing incompatibility as the reason.
Abubakar Suleiman, Chief Finance Officer of the bank said “We reviewed Keystone Bank and concluded the strategic fit was not strong enough. We will continue to evaluate all the options. As new candidates come into the market, we will also review them.”
They are now focused on raising funds and investigating the possibility of other acquisitions.
The plan for Sterling bank had been to acquire one or two national lenders as banks had been forced to recapitalize due to the sharp fall of the Naira. Keystone fit the bill with AMCON also willing to sell.
Sterling are still plotting a move to acquire a rival in Nigeria but to do so will first study the impact of last month’s 30 per cent fall in the value of the naira.
This came about after the central bank halted its 16-month old peg of N197 to the dollar in June in a bid to allow the currency to trade freely. This was supposed to stop the shortage of the dollar which had since then stunted economic growth.
It hasn’t really helped however as the fall in oil prices has made sure that the dollar is still in short supply. Analysts see the slowdown as
This in turn has led Analysts to believe that this would see an increase in mergers as with the now abandoned Sterling/Keystone combination.