The December 31, 2017 deadline for the handover of 9mobile, Nigeria’s fourth-largest telecommunications service provider to one of the five potential investors has been postponed to January 2018, BusinessDay has gathered.
Although Godwin Emefiele, Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had earlier said that the December 31, 2017 deadline for the handover of 9mobile to the preferred bidders “remains sacrosanct,” sources familiar with the details of sale tell BusinessDay that the date for handover of ownership had to be postponed to a later date.
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“The exact dates have not been communicated, but we are looking at some time in January 2018,” our source said.
Bharti Airtel, Smile Telecoms Holdings, Helios Investment Partners LLP, Teleology Holdings Limited and Globacom were earlier this month, shortlisted as the five bidders still in the running to take over ownership of 9mobile after a rescheduled bidding process took place with the approval of both regulators and lender banks involved.
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 5, 2017.
At this point, stakeholders were still confident that that the December 31 date for new ownership still stands.
The shortlisted companies were then required to go into 9mobile’s data room to conduct due diligence a process which was scheduled to take place between Tuesday, December 5 and December 31, 2017, when the company would be handed over to the winning bidder after presenting a firm financial bid for 9mobile.
Industry watchers have however expressed doubt that any operating telco in Nigeria might win the bid to acquire 9mobile and have given the higher likelihood to Helios investment and Teleology holdings limited, especially in hard times such as this, when operators are struggling for survival in the midst of clear market dominance in terms of subscriber base, infrastructure ownership and revenue share, in addition to the drastic reduction of average revenue per user (ARPU).
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Speaking on the initial complaints of lack of transparency in the bidding process by Barclays Bank, the financial adviser over the sale of 9mobile, Olusola Teniola, President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) told BusinessDay that; “any attempt to mess up with the bidding process, halt it or postpone its sale will shake investor confidence in Nigeria’s telecommunications industry.”
“It will be a bad thing for the industry if what has been said will be done is not done by the deadline which was initially set,” Teniola said.
9mobile which was formerly Etisalat ran into trouble and was forced to rebrand after its Abu Dhabi arm pulled out and new board members were appointed to run the affairs of 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 is currently facing serious challenges operating in the Nigerian market as it continues to lose subscribers daily. Its subscriber base has dropped significantly from about 21million to 17.2million subscribers on the network according to data on the NCC website.
Jumoke Akiyode- Lawanson
