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China
Unicom, Telecom N.Z., Deny Involvement in NITEL Bids
China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. and Telecom
Corp. of New Zealand said they didn’t participate
in a government auction to buy Nigerian Telecommunications
Ltd., contradicting
a public announcement by the West African state.
Neither Unicom nor its unlisted parent
joined the bidding for Nitel, as Nigerian Telecommunications
is known, Sophia
Tso, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for the Beijing-based
company, said by phone today. Telecom Corp.’s Telecom
New Zealand isn’t part of a group bidding for Nitel,
said Mark Watts, spokesman for the Auckland-based company
said by phone.
Nigeria’s privatization agency shortlisted five
investor groups in the auction for state-owned Nitel,
which has lost market share to private operators entering
Africa’s fastest- growing phone market. The government
this week said a group comprising Unicom, China’s
No. 2 mobile carrier, submitted a $2.5 billion offer,
and was chosen as preferred bidder.
The purported offer for a 75 percent
stake in Nitel was “relatively high” compared with the valuation
in Bharti Airtel Ltd.’s proposed $9 billion purchase
of the African wireless assets of Kuwait’s Zain,
Nomura Holdings Inc. analyst Danny Chu wrote in a report
yesterday. Nitel’s annual ebitda, or earnings before
interest, tax, depreciation and amortization was estimated
at about $13 million, according to Chu.
Bharti Airtel’s bid for the Zain assets was valued
at about 7.4 times ebitda, while paying $2.5 billion
for the Nitel stake would be equivalent to more than
100 times ebitda, according to Nomura’s Chu.
Preferred Bidder
China Unicom fell 1.3 percent to HK$8.87 in Hong Kong
trading compared with a 0.5 percent decline in the benchmark
Hang Seng Index. Telecom Corp. was unchanged at NZ$2.34
on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.
New Generation Telecom Ltd., a group
made up of Unicom, Dubai’s Minerva Group and Nigeria’s GiCell
Wireless Ltd., was selected as the preferred bidder for
Nitel, Nigeria’s National Council on Privatization
said at a press briefing in the capital Abuja on Feb.
16. The statement said Telecom New Zealand International
was the “technical partner” of a separate
bidding group led by a special-purpose vehicle called
Brymedia West Africa Ltd.
Telecom New Zealand International is
part of Telecom Corp. and isn’t involved in the
Nigeria bid, Watts said.
Nitel has lost market share to rivals including MTN
Nigeria Ltd., and its employees are currently owed 17
months of wages, according to the Bureau of Public Enterprises.
A previous attempt to sell the company was annulled after
Transnational Corp., a Lagos-based investment company,
failed to comply with sale conditions.
Joseph Anichebe, spokesman for Nigeria’s Bureau
of Public Enterprises, wasn’t immediately available
to comment when called on his mobile phone. Calls to
Christopher Anyanwu, the director- general of the BPE,
were unsuccessful because his mobile phone was switched
off.
source:
Business Week
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