US-Based Amassment Corporation Bids To Acquire Collapsed Imperial Bank

US-based financial company Amassment Corporation has tabled a second bid to acquire the assets of the collapsed the Imperial Bank. They cited readiness to lower KDIC’s contribution in the acquisition.

The firm had, in their initial bid, stated that they want to assume all remaining Imperial Bank deposits amounting to KSh49.03 billion with an equal face-value amount of loan assets including 50% of the current loans in litigation.

Amassment Corporation had also stated that KDIC should contribute cash capital of 20% of what the corporation owes to remaining depositors into the special purpose firm, in order to partially compensate for value declines sustained by loan assets, litigation costs, as well as losses from non-performing loans that they will assume.

Kenya Depositors Insurance Corporation (KDIC) thwacked the firm’s bid and said that their offer for Imperial Bank assets was below par.

On 15th August, KCB announced that it won’t be buying all of Imperial Bank’s assets. CEO Joshua Oigara said KCB’s initial review had identified Sh10 billion loans that the lender intended to take over out of Imperial Bank’s nearly Sh25 billion loan book, but the amount has dropped sharply after the lender failed to validate a huge chunk of the assets.

In October 2015, Central Bank placed the Imperial Bank under receivership. This was arrived at after it emerged that the lender was operating two sets of books, with a potential fraud of $449 million that placed depositor funds at risk.