Thirteen Companies Bid for Nigerian Operator

­Nigeria's government says that a total of thirteen companies have submitted bids to buy a 75 percent stake in the dominant landline operator, NITEL. A committee has now been set up to study the bids and put though those who pass pre-qualification stages to the formal bidding process.

According to a statement from the Bureau of Public Enterprises, the companies are Etisalat Nigeria; Omen International; Summit Group; MTI Consortium; Finetek.Com/Ericsson Consortium; India's MTNL; Globalcom, MTN Nigeria; Anas Network Services; Spain's Telefonica; Metro PCS Communications; Brymedia, and Galaxy Backbone.

Last year, Vodafone expressed an interest in the company, but has evidently declined to pursue the option.

The pre-qualification process will look more favourably upon companies that want to acquire NITEL and keep it as a single operating company. NITEL includes the mobile network subsidiary MTel, but the bidding documents would permit different companies to cherry-pick which parts of the company they want to bid for.

Local company, Transcorp bought a 75% stake in 2006 in both companies for $750 million during a privatization sale, but the government reclaimed the stake earlier this year following several years of neglect.

Last week, Nigeria's Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated a new interim board of directors to run the affairs of NITEL pending the sale to the new investor.

Posted to the site on 3rd September 2009