Sections
Poll: Power pledge
Is Mr. President's promise of additional 6,000 MW of electricity in 18 months achievable?
Government begins search for investor for 51% equity in NITEL/MTEL
Font size:
Irene Nkechi Chigbue, director-general, BPE
The Federal Government has started the process to appoint advisers for the privatisation of 51 percent of Nigerian Telecommunications plc (NITEL) and its mobile arm, MTEL.
This follows the conclusion of arrangement by Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to seek expressions of interest (EoI) for the appointment of privatisation advisers for the two companies.Chigbo Anichebe, head, public communication, BPE, said the bureau’s action followed the directive of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) to begin the process to engage a new core investor with the requisite technical, managerial and financial resources to take over the management of NITEL/MTEL from Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp), its current managers.
Anichebe said the BPE in line with government’s objectives was “seeking the services of an advisory consortium that would include financial, legal, marketing, accounting, technical and valuation advisers to advise it on the privatisation process.”
The consortium would be expected, among others, to review the operations of NITEL and MTEL and prepare an information memorandum.
It would also prepare valuation reports that would give an indicative base price for the enterprises as well as prepare draft contract documents and all other transaction documents required for competitive and transparent bidding process.
The consortium would also be expected to market NITEL/MTEL to prospective investors and assemble all documents that would be required in hosting data room.
Another key task of the adviser would be to evaluate the technical proposals submitted by prospective core investors and advise the NCP accordingly and prepare a comprehensive post-transaction report for the NCP.
The BPE on behalf of the Federal Government in 2006 sold 51 percent equity to Transcorp and retained 49 percent.
Both the Federal Government and Transcorp have mutually consented to restructuring the current shareholding and admitting a core investor who will be offered a 51 percent stake in NITEL/MTEL.
Consequently, the 51 percent will be contributed by both the Federal Government (22 percent) and Transcorp (29 percent), which in effect implies the dilution of Transcorp’s stake, bringing it down to 22 percent while government retains 27 percent.
NITEL was incorporated as a limited liability company in December 1984, a product of the merger between the telecommunications arm of the defunct Post and Telecommunications Department (P & T) of the Ministry of Communications and the Nigerian External Telecommunications Limited (NET.) NITEL formally started operations in 1985.
In 1996, the Federal Government established the Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTEL) to provide cellular services and thus transferred NITEl’s cellular operations that it started providing in 1992 to MTEL.
Following the auction of Digital Mobile Licences by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in February 2001, NITEL acquired a GSM licence, which it transferred to MTEL, its wholly-owned subsidiary, in March 2003.
Add to:
del.icio.us |
Digg
del.icio.us |
Digg
Email to a friend
Print version
Plain textRate this article
Comments (1 posted):
After all the complaints that have trailed some of our most recent privatisations, one would expect the BPE to be determined to get this right in order to restore credibility and integrity to the organisation in particular and the country in general!!
However, knowing Nigeria and the way we do things, I won't be surprised if that is not the case!!
Post your comment