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Bharti Airtel, Smile Telecoms Holdings, Helios Investment Partners LLP, Teleology Holdings Limited and Globacom have been shortlisted as the five bidders still in the running to take over ownership of 9mobile, Nigeria’s fourth largest telecommunications provider, sources familiar with the matter tell BusinessDay.
The process where the five companies emerged as potential new owners of 9mobile started on Monday, December 4, 2017 and was concluded on Tuesday, December, 2017.
This scheduled to be redone after the expression of displeasure with the initial selection process by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) through a letter accusing Barclays Bank, the financial adviser to the banks of “unwillingness to follow due process in the selection of final bidders” a few weeks ago.
Informed sources tell BusinessDay that “all parties including the lender banks, company bidders and regulators are happy with the new process as there was no favouritism and major criteria for selection was based on prior experience as an operator of a telecommunications network.”
“Barclays bank was present during the selection process as well as five of the consortium of 13 lender banks who were represented by senior management staff,” the source said.
These five shortlisted companies will be required to go into 9mobile’s data room to conduct due diligence a process scheduled to take place between now and December 31, 2017.
The next stage of the sale process would now be for the 5 firms to present a firm financial bid for 9 mobile.
Although the accusation of unfairness and lack of transparency on the part of Barclays bank stalled the sale process a little, stakeholders are confident that the December 31 date for new ownership still stands.
Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman, Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) and Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria said in a joint letter that the December 31, 2017 deadline for the handover of 9mobile to the preferred bidders “remains sacrosanct.”
Helios Investment Partners is a Africa focused private equity and venture capital firm based in London specializing in buyouts of going concerns, growth equity, recapitalization, mezzanine, growth capital for private enterprises, restructurings, joint ventures, start-ups; either green-field or brownfield and majority or blocking-minority structured investments in listed entities.
Bharti Airtel Limited is an Indian global telecommunications services company based in New Delhi, India. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa. The company provides GSM, 3G and 4G LTE mobile services, fixed line broadband and voice services depending upon the country of operation.
Smile communications is a pan-African telecommunications group founded in 2007 with operations in Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2012, the company launched Africa’s first 4G LTE commercial network in the 800MHz band (ITU “band 20”) in the East African market, starting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and then Kampala, Uganda. This was followed by the launch of West Africa’s first 4G LTE commercial network, also in band 20, starting in Ibadan and then Lagos, Nigeria.
Globacom Limited is a Nigerian multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Lagos. Popularly called GLO, the company is a privately owned telecommunications carrier that started operations on 29 August 2003. It currently operates in four countries in West Africa, namely Nigeria, Republic of Benin, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
Teleology Holding Limited is an SPV formed and owned by telecommunications industry veterans, specifically to acquire a substantial holding in 9mobile and thereafter potentially other underperforming Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). Included in this team are five of the top leadership executives who established and grew MTN Nigeria from 2001 to 2005.
9mobile which was formerly Etisalat was forced to rebrand after its Abu Dhabi arm pulled out and new board members were appointed to run the affairs the company following failed negotiations with its lenders over a missed payment of the $1.2billion loan taken out from a consortium of 13 Nigerian banks in 2013. The telco’s subscriber base has dropped significantly from about 21million to 17,203,940 million subscribers on the network according to data on the NCC website.
The initial seventeen companies who submitted expressions of interest (EoI) to bid for 9mobile include; Globacom; Airtel Nigeria; Smile Telecoms Holdings Limited; Dangote Industries Limited; Helios Investment Partners LLP; Centricus, Lintel Capital & Africell Consortium; The Abraaj Group; Teleology Holding Limited; The ACA Consortium and the Africa Finance Corporation; The Carlyle Group; Miliost Global Inc; NatCom Development and Investment Limited (Noel); Compusectechnologies Limited; H&G Consortium; Adbro Group; Telecapital Nigeria limited and Greenwich Trust limited consortium; and Obot Etiebet & Co.
Jumoke Akiyode-Lawanson
