NATCOM CONSORTIUM WINS NITEL, MTEL WITH $252M BID
At last, the process for the sale of functions and assets of the nation’s national carrier, Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (Nitel) and the Mobile Telecommunications (Mtel) has been formalised as the sole qualified bidder, NATCOM Consortium, has offered to pay $252,251 million to acquire both assets, liabilities and functions of the moribund companies.
NATCOM came from a short break that was granted by the Technical Committee to enable it meet the fixed preferred price of $221 million to acquire the companies which it did not meet initially to surpass its offers to pay above the price.
NATCOM consortium emerged the preferred bidder for the acquisition of the assets of the Nigerian Telecommunications Plc, NITEL, and the Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications MTEL.
The consortium won the bid after its revised bid price of $252. 251, 000 from the initial $221 was accepted, having met the reserved price.
NATCOM’s major contender, one of the two prequalified bidders, NETTAG Consortium was disqualified for failure to enclose a bid bond as clearly stipulated in the Request for Proposal, RFP.
Speaking during the public opening of the financial bid for the acquisition of the of the assets of NITEL and MTEL under the guided liquidation exercise in Abuja yesterday, Chairman, Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatisation, NCP, Atedo Peterside, explained that section 10. 3. 1. of the RFP provided that each bidder shall furnish, as part of its proposal a bid bond in the form of a Bank Guarantee of a Letter of Credit in the sum of $10 million.
The bid bond must be enclosed with the technical proposal. The Bank Guarantee of Letter of Credit shall be from a reputable bank acceptable to BPE and the liquidator and be valid for 120 days from the deadline for submission of proposals. Provision must be made for extension of the term of the bid bond if the validity period is extended.
He added that section 10.3.2 of the RFP further specified that ‘any technical proposal not accompanied by the bid bond will be disqualified’
Peterside stated that after a review of the checkered history of the privatisation of NITEL and MTEL, the National Council on Privatisation, at its meeting of February 27, 2012, approved the privatisation of both telecom companies through guided liquidation.
He noted that the strategy was adopted by the council after due consideration of other options and in the light of the previous failed attempts to privatise NITEL and MTEL through Strategic Core Investor Sale and Negotiated Sale strategies and the huge liabilities of creditors to the tune of over N300 billion.
The Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, Mr. Benjamin Dikki noted that while the reform and liberalisation of Nigerian Telecommunications sector has made tremendous strides since 2000, the privatisation transactions of NITEL and MTEL had been unsuccessful.
According to him, there have been four transactions and one management contract that have turned out to be disappointing, expressing hope that this time around, the procurement of a technically and financially qualified bidder that will not meet the deadline for payment of the purchase consideration but will deploy the required resources to rehabilitate and grow these companies to play a significant role in the Nigerian telecoms sector.
The Minister of Communication Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson noted that the privatisation of the NITEL and MTEL is the last segment of the wellthought out reform of the Nigerian Telecommunications sector which commenced since year 2000.
No comments:
Post a Comment