By Emele Onu  | From Bloomberg

The Asset Management Corp. of Nigeria plans to begin the sale of Keystone Bank Ltd., the biggest of three lenders nationalized after a 2009 financial crisis, in the second quarter after general elections next month.

“We chose to start in the second quarter to allow for elections to come and go,” Mustafa Chike-Obi, chief executive officer of state-owned Amcon, said by phone today. “By that time everything has returned to normal.”

The sale will be transparent and Amcon will call for bids with a selection process lasting three to four months and ending this year, Chike-Obi said.

Keystone is the last of three nationalized lenders to be sold after Lagos-based Mainstreet Bank was purchased by Skye Bank Plc and Enterprise Bank by Heritage Banking Co. last year. Amcon was set up in 2010 to stabilize Nigeria’s banking industry and buy bad loans after a debt crisis in Africa’s biggest oil producer.

In February, President Goodluck Jonathan’s ruling People’s Democratic Party will face what may be its toughest poll since the end of army rule in 1999, challenged by a unified opposition led by former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari.

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