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BPE shortlists Transcorp, five others for NITEL sale
Oluyinka Akintunde, Abuja
The Bureau of Public Enterprises has shortlisted six companies for the negotiated sale of 51 per cent of government’s equity in the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited.
Following two botched attempts to sell the country’s first national carrier, the BPE on May 4, 2006 dropped the option of competitive bidding and adopted a negotiated sale approach for the privatisation.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, the Director-General, BPE, Mrs. Irene Chigbue, insisted that the bureau would conclude NITEL’s sale before the end of June 2006.
She said, “We have adopted the negotiated sale option for NITEL. For sometime now, we have not had the right amount for NITEL. Now we have a right of first refusal.
“We have a list of preferred and reserve companies. There are some on the preferred list and also some on the reserve list. The companies will go and do due diligence on the telecommunications firm. We are looking forward to concluding this transaction before the end of June 2006.”
Although she did not name the six firms shortlisted by the bureau, our correspondent gathered that Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) and five other companies are in the preferred list.
Asked about the fate of the company if the transaction again record low bids, the BPE boss said that the bureau was optimistic of selling NITEL before the end of June.
She said, “That is why we have Plan A and Plan B. We have preferred and reserve list. But in the event that we do not get the right price from those on the preferred list, we will abort it.
“We will then allow the other people on the reserve list to give us their prices. We are very optimistic this time around because we know there is a lot of competition going on.”
On the strike embarked upon by NITEL workers over unpaid salaries, she confirmed that the BPE had waded into the problem and was meeting with the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Minister of Communications, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, to resolve it.
According to her, President Olusegun Obasanjo has instructed the finance ministry to deduct at source from the allocations of ministries and agencies the N5billion debt which they owe the telecommunications firm.
“As at Tuesday, May 16, we were promised at least between N500 to N700million, maybe they will raise the figure. This is part of the money that is being owed NITEL. Probably they can use the money to settle workers,” she said.
NITEL, which has a staff strength of 11,000, had liabilities of N130billion as at October 2005, representing an increase of 76.2 per cent over the figure of N73.8billion in 2003.
Chigbue noted that some of the company’s debts were trade credits or debts which would become assets at the maturity period.
She, however, disclosed that the debts would form part of the reserve price for the company, which she declined to mention.
THE PUNCH, Thursday May 18, 2006
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