MTNL bids for Nigerian telco

State-Run Telecom Co Among 13 In Fray For Buying 75% In Nitel STATE-OWNED telecom operator MTNL on Wednesday submitted a bid to acquire a 75% stake in Nigerian Telecommunications (Nitel), said a top executive with the company that offers communication services in Delhi and Mumbai.      MTNL will now appoint consultants to evaluate Nitel before placing a financial bid for the Nigerian government-owned telco that has both fixed-line and mobile operations (both GSM & CDMA), the executive said, requesting anonymity.      The Indian telco will, however, have to compete with 12 other bidders, including global majors such as Africa's largest telecom operator MTN, Etisalat and Telefonica.      All bidders will be given access to Nitel's books to begin due diligence. The deadline for submitting financial bids is October 2.      According to Nigeria's Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the country has set up an evaluation committee to assess the bids submitted by the 13 companies. The BPE said it would give preference to companies that are looking to buy the telco's fixed-line, mobile operations (both GSM & CDMA) transmission backbone, Analog System (TACS) and SAT-3 components together. Bidders have also been allowed to place bids for each of these components individually.      Acknowledging that 13 companies have placed bids for Nitel, Nigeria's Bureau of Public Enterprises said in a statement: "The consortia that are pre-qualified for the next stage are expected to pay a non-refundable fee of $25,000 for bidding documents and execute the confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement. It is apt to emphasise that in accordance with the advertisement, interested bidders may elect not to participate in the data room process and are free to submit technical and financial bids by the deadline of October 2, 2009."Bidders seen eyeing Nitel's mobile networks  THE statement added: "The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), as part of the evaluation of the prospective bidders, is expected to conduct a 'fit and proper' test on each bidding consortium to participate in the bidding exercise."      The other bidders in the fray include Omen International Limited (BVI), Summit Group, MTI Consortium; Finetek.Com/Ericsson Consortium, Globalcom, Anas Network Services, Metro PCS Communications, Brymedia (WA) and Galaxy Backbone.      Analysts say Nigeria is the fastest growing market in Africa. The country added over 7 million new telecom users in the previous quarter of 2008 beating South Africa to be the largest market for communications in the African continent. Besides, analysts add that most bidders are eyeing Nitel's mobile networks alone since the Nigerian telco's fixedline systems have been running into huge losses marred by mismanagement, high employee numbers and other legacy issues.      So far, Nigeria has failed to privitise Nitel in its earlier attempts due to concerns associated with the telco's fixedline assets. Egypt's Orascom was close to buying out Nitel in 2005, but the deal fell through after the Nigerian government rejected the company's bid of $257 million.      This time around, the deal is likely to go through as Nigerian president Umaru Yar'Adua last week mandated that the Nitel board sell the teleco within 60 days.