Asset Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON, has said it will commence the sale of the three nationalised banks this month just as the company has so far recovered N600 billion of the more than N2 trillion bad loans it acquired from banks.

Managing Director/Chief Executive, AMCON, Mr. Mustapha Chike-Obi, disclosed this in Lagos, yesterday, while speaking with newsmen at end of the Bankers Committee meeting.

It would be recalled that last year, AMCON acquired Mainstreet Bank, Keystone Bank and Enterprise Bank, the three bridge banks created by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC, to take over the assets of the former Afribank, Bank PHB and Spring Bank whose licences where revoke by the CBN for not meeting the September 31 deadline for rescued banks to re capitalised.

AMCON said the nationalised banks would be managed and stabilised and then sell to interested investors.

Speaking on the proposed sale of the banks, Chike-Obi said: “The process of selling the nationalised banks will start this month. We are going to put out advert for advisers who will advise us on how to sell the nationalised banks. We would let the process be transparent and run its course, but we believe it would take about 12 to 18 months.”

He said the sale of the banks was open to both local and foreign investors, noting: “It is a level playing field, everybody would invest (both local and foreign investors) and will have a chance to invest, but the CBN will have to approve the investors. There have been a lot of interest, but we would let everybody have a fair chance.”

On the plight of the former shareholders of the nationalised banks and prospect of compensating them, he said:” What I said was that if anybody gives me an idea of how to compensate them, we will listen to it. We are looking at so many ways of doing it, but we have to be clear.”

On the company’s effort to recover bad debts acquired from banks, he said: “We are recovering the debt at a faster rate as expected. We have recovered about a N100 billion so far this year and our target is to recover N1 trillion this year.

“Every debtor must pay what they owe and we are making sure that everybody pays and so far, we are recovering at a faster rate. About another N2trn debt is pending to be recovered.N600 billion has been recovered so far.”

On the possibility of AMCON investing part of the recovered debts in the capital market to aid the recovery of the market, Chike-Obi said, “That is a question for CBN, AMCON, Ministry of Finance. But the capital market is important and useful to AMCON and hopefully, we will come up with and answer.