SSNIT says it sold its majority interest in Merchant Bank to First-Rand of South Africa as part of strategies to boost returns on its investments. The bank yesterday announced accepting a little over 176 million Ghana cedis from the second biggest finance group in South Africa to acquire 75 percent of its stake. Director General of SSNIT, Dr. Frank Odoom tells JOY-BUSINESS, they wanted a strategic investor that will turn around the fortunes of merchant bank. He however argues the deal was the best the trust could have secured. “Looking at Merchant Bank as an entity we thought there was the need to infuse some more dynamism into it and get a strategic investor to invest in the bank to become a better bank. The process that we’ve gone through so far has been studied carefully and we think the proposal we had is good enough to turn the bank around” he said. Dr. Odoom however denied suggestions the deal will see SSNIT absorbing the bank’s bad debt. “We didn’t clean the bank up before handing over. There are still difficulties and that’s why we’ve sought an investor” he said. Meanwhile, Typical of such takeover’s, JOY-BUSINESS has learnt there will be some changes in the top management structure of Merchant Bank.