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The tone of things to come in the banking industry may have been set with the report at the weekend of the emergence of First City Monument Bank (FCMB) as the preferred strategic investor for Finbank.

Finbank, last Friday, sent notice to the Nigerian Stock Exchange that it was in negotiations with a potential strategic investor, but gave no further details.

Kenny Aliu, group head, corporate communications at FCMB, refused to confirm the bid.

“Once there is an official position on this matter, we will make it public. For now, we have nothing to say,” Mr. Aliu said.

Strong bids are also in the pipeline for Bank PHB and Union Bank. The three banks are among the nine banks rescued last year by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which has canvassed new core investors to acquire the bailed out institutions. The others – Afribank, Oceanic Bank, Spring Bank, and Intercontinental Bank – are expected to announce new investors in the weeks ahead.

Lamido Sanusi, CBN governor, said recently that among institutions that have indicated interest in acquiring the banks are two foreign banks, along with local banks and private equity firms in partnership with foreign banks.

This is coming, however, amid threats by some shareholder groups to challenge the propriety of the Central Bank to negotiate the sale of the banks without due process. Sunny Nwosu, coordinator of one of the shareholders group, said shareholders will fight the acquisition of Finbank by FCMB.

“Let the court decide. There have been advertorials alleging non-transparent and unprofessional bidding process by FCMB. If that is the case, it means the emergence is questionable. It should be subjected to interpretation and court adjudication,” Mr. Nwosu said.

However, Godwin Anono, another shareholder activist, said the takeover by FCMB was the best thing to happen to Finbank.

“I don’t think there is anything unprofessional about the way FCMB went about its bidding,” he said.

Other bids

Access Bank and Fidelity Bank are also bidding for Afribank. Austin Edoja-Peters, Access Bank spokesman, did not confirm his bank’s interest. He, however, said the bank will make bids in line with CBN regulation.

Emma Esinne, Fidelity Bank’s spokesman, affirmed the bank’s bid, saying, “We are interested in the bank in question. At the appropriate time, when it becomes necessary, we will make it open.”

But a source at Bank PHB said the bank has not had any bid from local banks.

“We have only received bids from Habib Bank Pakistan so far,” the source said.

Habib Bank Pakistan was a shareholder in Habib Bank Nigeria, which eventually merged with Platinum Bank to form Bank PHB.

Union Bank has also settled for one bidder, out of about a dozen bidders that indicated interest in acquiring the 93 year old bank.

“We narrowed it down to four and now we have zeroed in on one, and it is not a bank,” said Francis Barde, the bank’s spokesperson.

Asked to confirm speculation that African Capital Alliance, a private equity firm, was the preferred bidder, he declined.

“It will not be ideal to disclose at this stage. Until we conclude all negotiations and agree on the details, we cannot disclose,” Mr. Barde said.