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By Kunle Aderinokun, Abuja
The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE)  said yesterday that it would open financial bids for the privatisation of Nigerian Telecommunications Plc (NITEL) and its mobile arm, M-tel, on February 16, 2010.

This followed the closure  of the submission of technical and financial proposals on February 5, 2010, which saw only six out of 14 pre-qualified consortia meeting the deadline.

BPE’s Head of Public Communications, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe, who made this known yesterday in Abuja, said only six out of the 14 pre-qualified consortia that met the deadline for the submission of the technical and financial proposals are to participate in the event.

 The successful bidders, he said, are Brymedia (WA) Ltd; AF21/ Spectrum Consortium; MTN Nigeria Communication Ltd; Globacom Nigeria Ltd; Omen International Ltd (BVI); and New Generation Teleco-mmunications Ltd (formerly Telefonica Consortium).

Fourteen prospective investors  had undertaken virtual data room on Nitel and M-tel. These included MTN Nigeria Communication Ltd; Etisalat Nigeria; Brymedia (WA) Ltd; Finetek.com/Ericsson consortium; Omen International Ltd (BVI); Fugar Technologies and MTI Consortium. Others are Telefonica Consortium; Globacom Nigeria Ltd; Conau Ltd; Dansacom Technologies Ltd; Adison Consulting; AF21/ Spectrum Consortium and Foneama.com.

The advertisement for expressions of interest from prospective investors for the acquisition of at least 75 per cent equity in Nitel had been published locally and internationally in July 2009.
The 14 consortia that were pre-qualified paid a non-refundable fee of $25,000 for access to the data room and bidding documents and executed the confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement.

The Nigerian Communic-ations Commission (NCC), as part of the evaluation of the prospective bidders, conducted a “fit and proper” test on each bidding consortium to participate in the bidding exercise.
In the advertisement, prospective investors were invited to apply to acquire either at least 75 per cent equity in the entire Nitel conglomerate or a stake in one or several of its components, namely, SAT-3; domestic fixed line telephony; national fibre-optic transmission backbone; CDMA network; and M-tel (GSM).

It also said that preference would be given to bidders who desire to acquire Nitel fixed lines, transmission backbone, M-tel and SAT-3 components together, while those bidding separately for M-tel must be ready to make necessary investments to detach M-tel from the Nitel networks.