A consortium including Hong Kong giant PCCW and a number of Nigerian companies has been selected as the preferred bidder for Nigeria’s struggling telco Nitel, and its mobile arm M-Tel, according to multiple reports.
Yesterday, the Natcom consortium…
A consortium including Hong Kong giant PCCW and a number of Nigerian companies has been selected as the preferred bidder for Nigeria’s struggling telco Nitel, and its mobile arm M-Tel, according to multiple reports.
Yesterday, the Natcom consortium initially submitted a US$221m bid, which was rejected by the country’s National Council on Privatisation (NCP).
Natcom later improved its offer to US$252.25m, which the vice-chairman of the NCP’s technical committee was subsequently quoted as saying “met the reserve price”.
The NCP did not respond to a request for comment.
In early August, the Nigerian government pre-selected Natcom and another consortium for the Nitel privatisation, after they topped the list of expected requirements.
The second consortium was, however, later disqualified after reportedly failing to include a US$10m bid bond, as stipulated in the request for proposal (RFP).
A government-appointed liquidator launched a new privatisation process in early June in a further attempt to turn the telco around. Initially, a total of 17 bidders expressed interest in the asset.
The government has tried to privatise Nitel on several occasions over the past decade.
In June 2011, a sales attempt was shelved after the reserve bidder, a consortium of China Unicom and FiberHome Technologies, failed to make a first payment.
A ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ approach for the sale of a 75% stake in Nitel and M-Tel, announced by Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan in early July 2011, also failed to find a buyer.
In early 2013, the NCP decided to sell the company again via a liquidation route. The government chose this option because proceeds from the sale were expected to be less than the value of its liabilities, estimated at around NgN350bn (US$2.16bn).
Nigeria’s communication technology minister Omobola Johnson was quoted as saying yesterday that the privatisation of Nitel and M-Tel was “the final step in the reform of the telecoms sector”.
