Nigeria calls bids for telecoms operator Nitel, units

By Randy Fabi

ABUJA, July 21 (Reuters) - Nigeria invited bids on Tuesday for a majority stake in its former telecoms monopoly Nitel or any of its six units, eight years after it first tried to privatise the loss-making operator.

Nigeria's privatisation agency said it was offering a 75 percent stake in Nitel and each of its subsidiaries, which include mobile unit MTEL, South Atlantic Terminal underwater cable (SAT-3), and analogue cellular phone units STAC and CDMA.

"Nitel and its mobile arm MTEL and other components may be acquired jointly or separately," the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) said in a call for bids published in local newspapers.

Africa's top oil producer ended Nitel's monopoly on Nigerian telecommunications in 2001 and first tried to sell the operator the same year. But the preferred bidders failed to pay the $1.3 billion price by the set deadline, leaving Nitel in state hands.

BPE announced last month it would unbundle the telecoms conglomerate into separate firms in an effort to attract more investor interest. [ID:nLI312137]

New investors have been difficult to find for Nitel, whose fixed lines have fallen to less than 100,000 from five times that figure in 2001. MTEL subscribers have also dropped to a few thousand from 1.3 million due to fierce competition.

Nitel's infrastructure fell into disrepair during decades of inefficient state management. Lines malfunction, billing is erratic and staff go for months without pay.

Africa's most populous nation came close to selling Nitel in late 2005 to Egypt's Orascom Telecom (ORTE.CA: Quote) (ORTEq.L: Quote), but the government rejected the $257 million offer as too low.