Minerva Group emerges top bidder for Nigerian Telecommunications

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With a bid of USD2.5 billion, the main financial backer of New Generation Technology, Dubai’s Minerva Group has emerged as the preferred buyer for ailing incumbent telco Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL).

New Generation is a consortium involving China Unicom, Minerva and local firm GiCell. According to GiCell’s managing director, Usman Gumi, the company has a firm commitment from its investors and partners, the Minerva Group, that it is working with and also believes that NITEL is worth the amount because of the infrastructure and potential that it has.

A search for a buyer for a minimum 75% of NITEL and 100% of its mobile unit M-Tel had been started by the Nigerian government in July 2009 after previous majority shareholder Transcorp divested its stake earlier in the year.