FirstRand eyes Keystone and Mainstreet banks

South African financial services company, FirstRand Ltd., is ready to buy Keystone and Mainstreet Banks, two of the three Nigerian nationalised banks, as it seeks to establish a consumer-banking presence in Nigeria.

Bank PHB, Afribank and Spring Bank were nationalised in 2011 by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), an agency established by the federal government in 2010 for that purpose, to form Keystone, Mainstreet and Enterprise banks respectively.

AMCON seeks to sell the three lenders by the end of 2013. And FirstRand, South Africa’s second-biggest financial-services company, would consider buying Nigeria’s Mainstreet Bank Ltd. or Keystone Bank Ltd.

“We would not be interested in Enterprise but would consider both Keystone and Mainstreet,” Sam Moss, director of investor relations at FirstRand, said in an e-mailed response to questions today. “There’s no formal process yet and we have no idea when it will start.”

FirstRand last year set up an investment bank in Nigeria and wants to follow that with retail operations to help fund the unit while profiting from growth in Africa’s most populous country.

FirstRand ended talks to buy Nigeria’s Sterling Bank Plc in 2011 after the parties were unable to agree on terms.

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