By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The sale of troubled 9mobile, the fourth largest GSM service provider in Nigeria, seems to have been completed following multiple reports in the media space.
Barclays Africa, which received bids from interested investors, is said to have chosen Teleology as their preferred buyer and has reportedly officially notified the firm, promoted by the former Chief Executive Officer of MTN, Mr Adrian Wood, to proceed with the payment of a non-refundable cash deposit of $50 million within 21 days from the date of the letter, dated February 21, 2018, or lose the bid to the reserve bidder, Smile Holdings Limited.
9mobile, formerly Etisalat Nigeria, was put up for sale after it found it difficult to repay the $1.2 billion loan it obtained from a consortium of 13 Nigerian banks.
Efforts by the lenders to take over operations of the telecoms firm failed as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) prevented this from happening.
With the reported official letter to Teleology Holdings Limited, the company has been given access to 9mobile’s records and financial books as well as the opportunity to seek further clarifications of the firm from its management within the 30-day window, which started counting from January 26, 2018, when the first letter on the third phase of the auction process was transmitted to Teleology Holdings.
Five companies had scaled through the final phase and they were Airtel, Globacom, Helios, Smile and Teleology Holdings Limited.
They were chosen from about 16 companies that tendered expressions of interest (EoIs) to Barclays Africa, 9mobile’s financial advisor.
The other firms were MTN, Airtel, Ntel, Virgin Mobile from the United Kingdom, Vodacom of South Africa, BUA Group, Morning Side Capital Partners, Obot Etiebet & Co, Blackstone Private Equity, and Hamilton and George International Limited.
But long into the process, January 2018 to be precise, a Federal High Court in Lagos quashed an ex parte order it earlier granted in July 2017, giving the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) the legal backing to set up an interim board to oversee the sale of the country’s fourth largest telecoms firm.
On July 3, 2017, Spectrum Wireless, a shareholder of Emerging Markets Telecommunications Service (EMTS), which owns the 9mobile licence, had lost its bid to stop United Capital Trustees Limited, representatives of the debtors, from taking over the company.
Spectrum claimed UCTL misrepresented facts that alienated its interests in the company.
But the court later discharged the order and asked UCTL to reverse all steps taken by it since the order was a nullity.
Days later, Spectrum, at a press conference in Lagos, warned investors to stay off the sale of 9mobile or risk losing their hard-earned money in the process.
Aduragbemi Omiyale 
Adedapo Adesanya