NCC Finally Approves Teleology Limited to Acquire 9Mobile

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), have approved the sale of Nigeria’s third largest mobile network operator, 9mobile to Teleology Holdings Limited.

Teleology Holdings Limited, the preferred bidder for the acquisition of 9mobile, had in July met the deadline for ownership of the firm with the payment of $251million into the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) escrow account, pending receipt of a ‘‘no objection” from the NCC.

The process for the acquisition of 9mobile commenced in October 2017 while Smile Communications emerged as the reserved bidder.

According to Daily Times, the sale of the telecoms to Teleology was approved at cost of $500 million which puts to rest one year of back and forth struggle of selecting a preferred bidder.

Teleology had on March 21 paid the initial $50million non-refundable deposit as a demonstration of its commitment to acquire 9mobile and was given a 90-day timeline to pay the balance having emerged the preferred bidder following the evaluation of the technical and financial bids for the telecom company.

9mobile is currently being supervised by Barclays Africa, the transaction adviser appointed by CBN, NCC and a consortium of 13 banks with a view to getting new investors inject fresh capital into the telecoms firm.

The bid for the sale of 9mobile equities followed disagreement between Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Limited (EMTS), formerly trading as Etisalat Nigeria, and the banks to restructure the repayment of a seven-year mid-term facility secured by the telecoms firm to service an existing loan and expand its network in 2013.