16 firms scramble for 9mobile

….Submit EoI at Barclay’s office
Indication has emerged that 16 companies had complied with the deadline for the submission of Expression of Interest (EoIs) at Barclays’ office in Ikoyi, Lagos, preparatory to accessing the data room to conduct their due diligence on 9mobile, subsequent preparatory for the bid submission stage.

So far, industry sources has revealed companies that have expressed interest in 9mobile to include Africa’s biggest telecoms operator, MTN;

India’s Bharti Airtel, operating as Airtel in Nigeria; and ntel, which in 2015 acquired the assets of the defunct NITEL and MTel through the Federal Government’s privatisation programme.

Others are Bua Group, the privately held conglomerate promoted by Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu; Morning Side Capital Partners, promoted by the former Managing Director of Diamond Bank Plc, Mr. Alex Otti; and Africell, a subsidiary of the Lebanon-based Lintel Group of Companies, with cellular communications operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC);

The Gambia, Sierra Leone and Uganda; Obot Etiebet & Co, belonging to a former petroleum minister, Mr. Don Etiebet; Blackstone Private Equity;

Tel-ology Holdings Limited, a special purpose vehicle led by a former chief executive of MTN Nigeria, Mr. Adian Wood, and Ericsson;

De-elim Services Limited; Veittel, a firm owned by the investment arm of the Vietnamese military which has telecoms assets in Africa; AB-Bro Limited, a Nigerian venture company; Hamilton and George International Limited; and two other firms.

It will recalled that Etisalat Nigeria had taken out a $1.2 billion syndicated loan from a group of 13 banks, but struggled to make repayments this year due to a currency crisis and recession in Nigeria.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervened to save the company from collapse and prevent creditors from putting it into receivership, leading to a change in its board and management, as well as the new name 9mobile.

The Nigerian lenders to the telecoms firm had given Barclays the mandate to handle the sale of 9mobile, after Citigroup and Standard Bank, earlier in the racing for the role, were dropped according to Reuters due to their previous ties to 9mobile.

Standard Bank’s Nigerian subsidiary, Stanbic IBTC Bank is among the group of lenders to 9mobile while Citi has advised the telecoms company in the past, said banking sources.