Globacom Limited, Nigeria's second national carrier and reputed as Africa's fastest growing telecommunications network has expressed interest in 51 percent equity of Nitel/Mtel, beleaguered premier national carrier.
If Globacom's expression of interest succeeds, it will take over the company from Transcorp which has lurched from one crisis to the next and have been unable to raise enough cash to fix Nitel since they bought the moribund telecoms firm for $500 million in 2006.
Dr. Mike Adenuga, chairman of Globacom with penchant for building something out of nothing is hoping to turnaround the national carrier and align it with his company’s now world class tradition of flawless service.
Adenuga is looking for opportunities to build a pan African telecommunications giant that will be the biggest and the best.
Globacom must however shrug challenges from four other telephony service providers including Telenor of Sweden, South Africa’s Telkom, Vodacom and Vodafone, all of whicn have signified interests though informally in taking over the 51 percent equity of the company from Transcorp.
The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) had set February 6, 2009 as deadline for the official handover of the moribund Nitel/Mtel to its new core investor.
The first attempt was in 2002 when Investment International Limited (ILL) of Britain failed to pay the $1.317 billion it offered for the 31 per cent shares of the company.
Another attempt was made in 2003 with the engagement of a Dutch company, called Pentascope to manage Nitel and put it on sound footing preparatory to its sale. This one also collapsed.
In the third attempt, Orascomm of Egypt’s offer of $256.43 million for 51 per cent shares was considered "ridiculously low", and, so the government canceled the deal.
And in 2006, the Transcorp deal appeared to be in doubt from day as Transcorp failed to pay the initial amount of $500 million for the 75 per cent stake in the company within the stipulated period of seven days, as stipulated by the terms of the sale agreement.
Instead, Transcorp made a down-payment of just $75 million and then requested for a major review of some aspects of the deal, especially as it relates to shareholding and schedule of payment.
