The speculation that First Bank is about to acquire Heritage Bank continues to grow and refuses to go away.
Sometime in 2018, a CBN report revealed that several commercial banks in the country, seven in number (CBN did not mention the names of the banks) had failed the CBN stress test for adequate funding by year end 2018.
CBN in its financial stability report, had revealed that in the less than 30-day period analysis, seven Nigerian commercial banks were not adequately funded ( CBN did not mention the names of the banks).
While in the three-months (31-90) days bracket, nine banks were not adequately funded.
It is alleged Heritage Bank have been struggling with a lingering liquidity challenge with failure to meet regulators required ratio. It is also alleged CBN had sometime in 2019 adviced the bank to do something about its liquidity challenge.
Feelers from within the bank suggests the bank have been doggedly seeking new investors to come on board and injest much needed funds to boost the operation of the bank, but so far, this has not worked out which is why the bank is in current situation.
Recall that Heritage Bank was set up by core investor IEI Plc, through IEI Investments Limited, which went on to acquire Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria SGBN) from CBN.
Also recall that in not so distant past, Heritage Bank acquired Enterprise bank Limited in October 2014. Heritage Bank paid AMCON 340million USD (N56.1 Billion) to acquire Enterprise bank as the winning bidder among both domestic and foreign bidders.
Should the alleged acquisition of Heritage Bank by First Bank go through, this would effectively bring Heritage bank’s 12 years of operation to a close in the financial industry.
