Business
Keystone To Sell African Subsidiaries
Keystone Bank Limited
last Thursday disclosed plans to sell its subsidiaries in three African countries due to capitalization challenges confronting the institution.
The countries are Uganda, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Keystone Bank, Mr Phillip Ikeazor said this during a media parley with journalists in Lagos.
According to him, Keystone Bank do not have capital to run the institution prior to when it acquired the institution.
Mr Ikeazor noted that the poor performance recorded by the African subsidiaries cannot be supported by the parent company.
Keystone Bank is wholly owned by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), it was created through bridge bank process and from the carcass of the defunct Bank PHB. However, AMCON is in the process of divesting its ownership of the financial institution.
“As you are aware, we had African subsidiaries which we had not had capital to run prior to when we took over the institution and those subsidiaries on their own has several challenges including capitalization.
“While the parent company itself was required to recapitalize. We didn’t have capital to put in the subsidiaries so they were not performing very well. So the strategy is to divest because, basically, we have to focus on our core business in our main country.”
Ikeazor pointed out that Keystone Bank has returned back to profitability.
He said in line with the move by AMCON to divest its ownership of the bank, working towards making the institution attractive viable buyers.
According to him, Keystone Bank has increased its foot prints in terms of technology. He said the bank has increased the number of its ATMs and has also grown its card and internet banking business. “we have also upgrade our contact centres. If you call our contact centres, they would take your issues in five different Nigeria Languages and you would have a much faster response time. So we have done a lot of focus very strongly on customers service.