TELKOM’S BID DEFEATED
A local industrial conglomerate, Transcorp, which is headed by Nigerian Stock Exchange director-general Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, has offered US750m for a 75% holding in the state-owned telephone company.
The latest bid follows a rejected offer of 256m for 51% of Nitel by Egypt’s Orascom, which failed to meet the reserve price set by Nigeria’s national privatisation council earlier this year.
Telkom has long expressed an interest in taking a holding in Nitel. However, it raised concerns about certain issues it needed the Nigerian government to address.
Transcorp, which is partnered by Britain’s BT Group, defeated Telkom and five other bidders.
The deal needs the privatisation council’s permission to go ahead. It will be Nigeria’s biggest privatisation deal.
Over the past few months the Nigerian government has done a lot to get Nitel into shape. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has ordered all government ministries and agencies to reconcile their outstanding debts to Nitel.
Nitel has also committed itself to shed up to 6000 of its 11000-strong workforce.
Besides operational problems, Nitel is falling behind in the telecom market. It has only about 500000 working fixed lines in a country of 134m people, and its cellular arm, M-Tel, has only 340000 customers in a market of 10m cellphone users. M-Tel has been left behind by private sector rivals MTN Nigeria, Vmobile and Glo Mobile.
Inet-Bridge || Discuss this article
Loading ...