Barely 72 hours after winning the bid for Enterprise Bank, Heritage Bank is set to sign the purchase agreement for the transaction on Friday and pay 20 per cent of the N65bn bid price.

It was also learnt on Monday that Heritage Bank had commenced a transition plan aimed at absorbing the nationalised bank and its entire branch network into its system.

A top official of Heritage Bank, who disclosed these to our correspondent on Monday, also said that contrary to reports that it bid N56bn for Enterprise Bank, the value of its successful bid was actually N65bn.

The official pleaded not to be named because the bank had yet to sign the purchase agreement with the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria.

The source said, “It will be too premature to start speaking on Enterprise Bank when we have yet to sign the purchase agreement. But what I can tell you unofficially is that we are set to buy Enterprise Bank from AMCON.

“We were ready for it and we are going ahead to buy it. We will pay 20 per cent of N65bn next week and the purchase agreement will be signed on Friday.”

The official further disclosed that the bank had commenced an internal transition programme ahead of the eventual takeover of Enterprise Bank as soon as the necessary payments were made.

According to him, issues relating to how Heritage Bank will take over the employees of Enterprise Bank are top priorities in the transition programme.

The source said, “The bank commenced an internal transition programme on Saturday. Job was among the issues that topped the transition programme. The management is exploring ways to ensure that no job is lost.

“One of the key points that made us to win the bid had to do with our plan on jobs. And we are working to fulfil that. We have a comprehensive growth road map that will be unveiled by the CEO next week.”

AMCON had on Thursday announced the Heritage Bank-sponsored HBSL Investment Services Limited as the preferred bidder for Enterprise Bank.

This came over a year after AMCON began the sale process of the nationalised bank. Enterprise Bank is one of the three nationalised banks created after the 2009 banking crisis, which saw the nationalisation of Afribank Plc, Bank PHB Plc and Spring Bank Plc.

The three bridge banks created from the failed banks are Enterprise Bank, Mainstreet Bank and Keystone Bank.

The Central Bank of Nigeria had on August 5, 2011 revoked the operating licences of Afribank, Spring Bank and Bank PHB, which it said did not show enough capacity and ability for recapitalisation.

In their place, the CBN, through the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation, established three bridge banks and transferred the assets and liabilities of the affected banks to the bridge banks.

Mainstreet Bank took over the assets and liabilities of Afribank; Keystone Bank assumed the assets and liabilities of Bank PHB; while Enterprise Bank took over Spring Bank.

Punch