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MTN, Airtel, ntel, 13 Other Firms Scramble for 9mobile
The scramble to acquire 9mobile, Nigeria’s fourth largest network operator, promises to be very competitive, as 16 firms have submitted expressions of interest (EoIs) to Barclays to bid for 9mobile, THISDAY has learnt.
Companies that have expressed interest in 9mobile, which until recently was Etisalat Nigeria Limited, until a debt default forced its former owner to relinquish its stake in the firm and exit Nigeria, 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.
Also in the race 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.
Other firms that submitted EoIs are 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.
THISDAY, October 23, 2017
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