The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that the new
deadline to conclude bidding for the acquisition of 9Mobile is Jan. 16,
as against Dec. 31, 2017, the former date.
The Director, Public Affairs of NCC, Mr Tony Ojobo, said that the
extension was because there had not been any preferred bidder for the
acquisition of 9Mobile in a statement on Friday.
Ojobo said that an approval of the request for extension of time by
the 9Mobile Interim Board was given by the two regulators, NCC and the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He said that the approval set the deadline for the receipt of biding offers from the prospective bidders till Jan. 16, 2018.
“Our attention has been drawn to newspaper publications alleging that
a preferred bidder has been anointed to acquire 9Mobile and otherwise
speculating on the outcome of the ownership transfer process.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to provide clarification that
Barclays Africa remains in full control of the process leading to the
emergence of a new owner for the company.
“Barclays has not authorised any publication on the matter and is obliged to maintain full confidentiality thereon.
“Contrary to speculations that a winner will be announced on the same
day (Jan.16), we wish to clarify that Barclays is expected to review
the bids received by the deadline and to make recommendations to the
9Mobile Interim Board thereafter,’’ Ojobo said.
He said that the NCC and the CBN would be duly notified once the
9Mobile Interim Board accepted Barclays’ recommendations and a winning
bid was determined in accordance with the terms of the exercise.
According to him, the winner will now apply to NCC, in order to
commence the processes for securing the regulatory approvals necessary
for full effect of the transfer.
(NAN)