@nutter, point noted.

No foreign company would have paid half of the amount that transcorp is expected to pay. Be that as it may, i wish them well; at the very least they are investing in our economy.

I think it's good for the politicians to be involved in private, legitimate ventures as long as those ventures are not monopolies. NITEL as a company has some monopoly rights that shouldn't be in the hands of Transcorp."

Seun in the light of what is happening in the Telecom sector in Nigeria, I don't think we can call this sector a monopoly.

What I said is that NITEL has certain monopoly rights, which is not disputable. If NITEL goes on strike, the other telecom operators will be crippled because NITEL manages the interconnections between most of them.

Read this: NITEL Strike Cripples Telecom Operations

TRANSCORP MISSES PAYMENT DEADLINE!

I for one give up on NITEL, it is truly jinxed. Better liquidate this curse a-la-Nigeria Airways and give way to new private ventures,

http://www.businessdayonline.com/?c=45&a=7531

Maybe it's just a delay, $75M s a lot of green to raise in 7 days. Anyhow, maybe the foreign financial backers became wary after all the huhaa that trailed the sale of Nitel last week. If that's indeed the case, can't say I blame them.

I'm tempted to suggest that TransCorp should pull out completly, and maybe the many critics would come up with a buyer willing to pay more than the 'trivial' $75M offered by TransCorp for this 'hugely valuable' national asset.

Perhaps had TransCorp been as 'street savvy' and 'smart' as the IBB's and  Atiku's in our midst and acquired TransCorp through one of their many front companies with 100% ownership to they and their families, we would have all kept quiet. Afterall, we've come to expect no more. Maybe as a nation, we're far from ready for this level of transparency,

DaddyO,

I am sure you meant $750Million not $75Million? Also come to think of it, they gave Transcorp
just 7 days to come up with $500Million? Meanwhile, Investors International Limited (IIL) back
in 2002 could not come up with their $1.1Billion even after with its 6 weeks extension. I am all
for Transcorp buying NITEL, but I had my doubts about the 7 days deadline. I will be surprised
if an extension is not granted.

On the other hand, should the deal collapse, Nigeria will once again be left with its crown jewel
of an asset, one that has and will continue to be a drain on the Federal Government. One that
already has over $1billion in liabilities and growing at a rate of about $200million per year.

Don't we love such a lovely national asset? I bet you though, a Chinese or Korean company will
eventuall come and offer us $400million for a 100% stake in NITEL and we will be all too grateful
to let it go to them. To cap it all, they may even be given 90 days to pay up! Don't we love the
Nigerian state of mind?

Stay tuned.

zexyworm:

TRANSCORP MISSES PAYMENT DEADLINE!

I for one give up on NITEL, it is truly jinxed. Better liquidate this curse a-la-Nigeria Airways and give way to new private ventures,

http://www.businessdayonline.com/?c=45&a=7531

That's not quite true. The date of that news article is behind the deadline which I understand to be midnight 14th July.

Eh ya! am not the type that say i told you so. They should try to manage the situation now so that it does not do much damage to their reputation.

@mariory; zexyworm is right. They have failed to come up with the money within the agreed period.

I suggest we bring in the chinese.

NITEL May Go To Second Preferred Bidder
BY FELIX ABUGU

THE dust raised by the apparently premeditated sale of the national carrier, NITEL to Transcorp may not have settled after all. There are indications that the failure of the company to pay the intial $500m of the $750m preferred bid price for the telecoms firm may be a pointer to an eventual purchase of NITEL by a reserve bidder.

Reports within the week showed Transcorps was only able to pay $75m or 10 per cent of the preferred bid price. This is far less than the $500m it had until Thursday last week to pay up. Even then, The Guardian learnt, the firm had to borrow the money from the Union Bank of Nigeria, which appeared to have been the only one out of several other Nigerian banks that it had approached.

Last week, Mr. Yemi Odusote, Pricincipal Consultant, Soulcomm, the external communications consultants to Transcorps told The Guardian that talks about Transcorps 'failure' or 'inability' to pay within the stipulated time frame were misplaced. He said Transcorps had only asked for more time from the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) to clear certain grey areas, such as the Share Purchase Agreement and other important matters, in the transaction.

"I know that with this development (the failure of Transcorps to pay), there will be a lot of insinuation about preferential treatment by the government for Transcorps. But this is not the case. What Transcorps is doing is to ensure that the transactions with regard to the purchase of NITEL are handled in a way that all parties to the deal are the happier for it, hence the request for time extension," he told The Guardian on phone.

The BPE spokesman Mr. Joe Anichebe had said Friday last week that Transcorps' request for time extension had been referred to the National Council on Privatisation for consideration.

The latest controversy over government's attempt to sell NITEL is coming barely a year after BPE's move to sell the national carrier to Egypt's telecoms giant at $250m Orascom fell through, following what was considered as "embarrassing" under-pricing of one of the nation's most important assets.

Before then, NITEL having been had a management agreement with Pentascope, a company with no track record whatsoever in network operations and management. Indeed, the address of the company's headquarters in the Netherlands was reportedly as uncompleted, fuelling speculations that the transaction might have been done with fraudulent intent.

The Orascom interlude came shortly after the Pentascope fiasco, which was remarkable for the many ironies it spawned in the nation's quest to achieve efficient telecom regime. It was learnt that Pentascope was inexplicably chosen to manage NITEL over and above reputable telecom companies like BT, Lucent Technologies, among others, which had bidden to take the 51 per cent Federal Government's shares in the company, in the same way that Orascom was chosen over and above some of these same reputable telecom companies in the world.

In the meantime, there were indications within the week that the grant of $75m to Transcorps may have raised a credibility problem for the Union Bank, which, it was learnt, was also the financial adviser to FT Networks, another bidder for the NITEL chairs.

The Guardian learnt that it was FT Networks' bid of $602m for NITEL that made insiders urge Transcorps to up its bid to $750m from $500m, on the grounds that the Nigerian public would suspect foul play if NITEL was sold to the indigenous for less than the price offered by FT Networks.

When NITEL was eventually sold to Transcorps, FT Networks, an investment group with the backing of international financial institutions led by Basic International Development Corporation of New York and which made written commitments to President Obasanjo and BPE to pay if chosen as the preferred bidder, became the reserve bidder.

The investment group is believed to have questioned the morality in UBN's loan to Transcorps, when the bank was supposed to act as its financial adviser in the NITEL deal.

Sources told The Guardian during the week that, barring any "improper" intervention on behalf of Transcorps by the authorities, it is most likely that Transcorps may finally fail to pay up for NITEL, in which case the national carrier will go to the reserve bidder, FT Networks

Culled from The Guardian

Transcorp has paid up already

Really? Cool! Is that official? Could you post links to confirm that.

Latest Update:

http://www.businessdayonline.com/?c=44&a=7822

August 3rd, 2006
NITEL: Transcorp pays balance of $675m Monday

The Chairman of Trans International Corporation (Transcorp), Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke said the organisation will pay the outstanding $675 million offer bid of NITEL on August 7. Okereke-Onyiuke confirmed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Lagos.

She said 10 local banks had agreed to partner Transcorp in the acquisition of the NITEL and named the banks to include Union Bank, First Bank, Zenith Bank, UBA, PHB and FirstInland Bank plc. Others are Ecobank plc, GT Bank, First City Monument Bank and Wema Bank.

In accepting to be part of the Transcorp dream for the telecommunication outfit, Okereke-Onyiuke said the banks had created an excrow account for the share purchase funds of NITEL. Although, the Chairman of Transcorp declined to provide specific details of the financial support of the banks involved, she said the $675million would initially be jointly managed by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and Transcorp.

According to her, the funds would be deposited with BPE only after the signing of the share purchase agreement. NAN recalls that Transcorp had few weeks ago paid $75 million being the 10 per cent of the $750 million dollars offer bid price for NITEL.

Okereke-Onyiuke commended Nigerians for their show of solidarity, adding that the people’s support had served as the tonic needed by the board and management to spearhead the revamping of the nation’s economy. She explained that Transcorp was essentially established to put indigeneous companies in a good stead to compete with their foreign counterparts.

Getting there slowly but, surely.

overtaken by events.

the moderator should close this thread for good.