The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has denied Arabian Amlak for Investment Limited as a bidder for NITEL/Mtel, saying that it has no record of Amlak participating in any of its previous privatization transaction.
A statement by the bureau’s Head, Public Communications, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe, said it had no formal engagement with Amlak talk the less of it emerging reserve bidder for NITEL/ m-tel as claimed.
The statement is published hereunder:
RE: FRESH CONTROVERSY DOGS NITEL/MTEL SALE A REJOINDER
The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) wishes to react to several publications in the print media pertaining to the above captioned subject matter. While it is true that one corporate body by name of Arabian Amlak for Investment Limited has commenced a legal action challenging the current sale process based on its inadequate understanding of our processes, it is imperative to clarify issues to the public to put matters in proper context.
Arabian Amlak for Investment Limited was among the twenty two (22) companies that submitted unsolicited Expressions of Interest to acquire Nigerian Telecommunications Plc (NITEL) in August 2011.
Contrary to the impression created, we have no record of Amlak’s participation in any of our previous privatisation transactions. As such, neither the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) nor BPE entered into negotiations with Amlak on its unsolicited offer nor was there any letter of offer given to Amlak, as should have been the case, if it emerged as reserve bidder as claimed. In fact, our process does not recognize a second reserve bidder. It only recognizes and designates two bidders as preferred bidder (being the highest bidder and whose bid amount meets the reserve price) and a reserve bidder (being the second highest bidder whose bid amounts also meets the reserve price), there is no provision for a second reserve bidder as alleged.
You may recall that following the failure of New Generation Communications Limited and Omen International Limited to meet their payment deadlines even after reasonable extension of time was given and in the light of previous unsuccessful transactions, the National Council on Privatisation, at its meeting of February 27, 2012, approved the privatisation of Nigerian Telecommunications Plc (NITEL) and Nigerian Mobile Telecommunication (MTEL) through “guided liquidation”.
This strategy was adopted by the NCP after due consideration of other options and in the light of the previous failed attempts to privatize NITEL and MTEL through Strategic Core Investor Sale and Negotiated Sale strategies and the huge liabilities of creditors to the tune of over NGN300 billion.
A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE GUIDED LIQUIDATION PROCESS
1) After NCP’s approval on the privatization of NITEL/MTEL through “Guided Liquidation” strategy, adverts were placed in the local and foreign media for Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the provision of advisory services for the privatisation of NITEL and MTEL through “guided liquidation”. The advert was published on July 20, 2012 and at the deadline for the submission of the Expressions of Interest (EOIs) on August 14, 2012, a total of thirty five (35) EOIs were received and evaluated.
2) Request for Proposals (RFPs)
Based on the evaluation result, only eight consortia were prequalified and were short-listed to proceed to the next stage for the issuance of Request for Proposals (RFPs). The eight pre-qualified prospective liquidators were issued with the RFPs and required to submit their technical and financial proposals. Following evaluation of the submissions, Otunba Olutola Senbore, the applicant with the highest combined score of technical and financial proposals, was selected as the liquidator of NITEL/MTEL.
3) Thus, following this competitive bidding process, the National Council on Privatisation, on 11th November, 2013, approved the appointment of Otunba Olutola Senbore as the Liquidator of NITEL and MTEL.
After a review of the procurement process, the Certificate of No Objection of the Bureau of Public Procurement was granted on December 17, 2013.
4) An application was then made to the Federal High Court in Abuja for the voluntary winding-up order of NITEL and MTEL and sanctioning of the appointment of Otunba O. Senbore as the Liquidator of the two companies.
5) The Federal High Court, Abuja granted the application on 14th March, 2014.
6) The Liquidator, in accordance with the provisions of the law, duly published the Notices of his Appointment and the enrolled Court Orders for the voluntary winding-up of NITEL and MTEL in the Business Day and The Nation newspapers of 26th March, 2014 as well as the FGN Gazette. The newspaper publications also requested creditors to submit their claims to the Liquidator.
7) Advertisements for submission of Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from prospective bidders for the acquisition of the assets and business undertaking of NITEL and MTEL were placed in local and international print media by the Liquidator. The advertisements were placed in This Day, Daily Trust and in The Economist of London, in 9th June, 2014.
8) Expressions of Interest were received from seventeen (17) organizations/consortia at the deadline for receipt of EOIs on 30th June, 2014. The seventeen EOIs received were duly evaluated and only two of them satisfactorily met the stipulated criteria for pre-qualification.
9) On 18th September 2014, the two successful applicants, NATCOM Consortium and NETTAG Consortium, that met the minimum pass mark of 75% were pre-qualified and issued the Request for Proposals (RFP) and allowed to proceed to data room and physical due diligence stage; prior to preparation and submission of their technical and financial proposals.
10) The deadline for submission of technical and financial bids was Friday 7th November, 2014 by 17.00 Hours GMT. The two pre-qualified bidders, NATCOM Consortium and NETTAG Consortium, submitted their technical and financial bids before the expiry of the deadline. The technical bids received from the two bidders were evaluated.
11) Unfortunately, one rof the two pre-qualified bidders, NETTAG Consortium, was disqualified for failure to enclose a bid bond as clearly stipulated in the RFP.
12) Therefore, following the disqualification of NETTAG Consortium as a result of its failure to submit a bid bond together with its technical proposal, only the financial bid of NATCOM Consortium qualified for opening on December 3, 2014; having scored an average of 92% in its technical proposal which was above the minimum pass mark of 75%, and satisfied the requirement of a valid bid bond.
13) Accordingly, the financial proposal of NATCOM Consortium was publicly opened on Wednesday, December 3, 2014. This event was aired live by NTA, FRCN, WE FM and Channels TV and was widely reported by the media.
CONCLUSION
Thus, this transaction has been going on since July 2012— for the appointment of a liquidator; and since June 2014— for the selection of a bidder. At all stages it was openly advertised giving all prospective bidders equal chance to compete for the acquisition of the assets of NITEL and MTEL in a transparent manner and affording a level-playing field to everyone. It is therefore ludicrous for anyone to suddenly wake up and claim to have acquired the assets in 2012 through willing-buyer-willing-seller strategy (negotiated sale). Throughout the five different privatization transactions of NITEL, the strategy of willing-buyer-willing-seller (or negotiated sale) was used only once, in the case of the strategic sale of 51% shares of NITEL to Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) in 2006 ostensibly to considerably reduce or cut-short the long process of procuring another core investor so as to quickly arrest the rapidly declining fortunes of
NITEL and MTEL. Unfortunately, that transaction also did not succeed as Transcorp failed to invest the required capital to turn turnaround the fortunes of the acquired companies.
Therefore the strategy has changed since 2012 following the failure of the last transaction through core investor sale to “Guided Liquidation”.
We have gone through this long explanation of the process of reform and privatization not to assuage Arabian Amlak but for the benefit of the public who may be misled by the Arabian Amlak.
There is absolutely no short-cut to transparency and due process in privatization transactions. This process has been tested and proven to be above board for over 26 years, not only by the Nigerian people, but also the international community and no Arabian Amlak can now begin to change a tested and proven process for the selfish end.
Arabian Amalak cannot change a court-ordered process through propaganda.
CHIGBO ANICHEBE
Head, Public Communications
