New Generation Telecommunications may no longer buy a 75% stake in Nigerian state-owned incumbent Nitel, after missing a third payment deadlines.
Instead, runner-up Omen International will now be offered the opportunity to buy the business, Bola…
New Generation Telecommunications may no longer buy a 75% stake in Nigerian state-owned incumbent Nitel, after missing a third payment deadlines.
Instead, runner-up Omen International will now be offered the opportunity to buy the business, Bola Onagoruwa, director-general of the country’s Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), told local newspaper This Day. Omen initially offered to pay US$956m for the stake.
For its part, New Generation Telecommunications, a consortium of local rural operator GiCell Wireless, Dubai-based investment firm Minerva Group and China Unicom had offered US$2.5bn, over twice as much.
But on December 23, it missed a third deadline to make its first payment of US$750m.
Headquartered in the British Virgin Islands, Omen is a consortium including China Unicom and Fiber Home Technologies Limited.
Brymedia Consortium, which in January upped its initial bid of US$551m to US$600m in case New Generation failed to pay.
Other bidders in the original process included the AFZI/ Spectrum Consortium, which had offered US$375m, and MTN Nigeria Communications, which offered US$25m for Nitel’s SAT-3 unit.
The government, which has been trying to privatise 75% of Nitel and 100% of its mobile business M-Tel since July 2009, finally carried out the process in February 2010. It then took eight months to select New Generation, following an investigation into its identity.
BNP Paribas and Eledas Capital Partners are advising BPE.
