Game over as 13 banks now part owners of Etisalat, new ownership structure underway
After weeks of lifeless battle and semantics to maneuver 13 lion-eyed Nigerian banks, indication emerged Tuesday evening that the end game has been won and lost as struggling telecoms group, Etisalat Nigeria is now working out new ownership structure that will include the banks as part owners after all.
This is coming after talks with the banks to restructure its $1.2bn loan failed.
The banks, lead by Access Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc will now become part owners of the company from an ongoing share restructuring. This seems to be the only option on the table the banks were willing to look at after Etisalat failed its $1.2bn syndicated loan repayment deadlines.
Before now, the telecoms group had been feeding followers of the deal that talks are still ongoing without failure, but in a terse statement issued on Tuesday, Etisalat Nigeria confirmed inability to swim to the coast from the high sea of loan repayment default.
Accordingly, It has not only agreed, but effectively commenced the restructuring with changes to its shareholding.
Though the statement, signed by the Vice-President, Regulatory & Corporate Affairs, Etisalat Nigeria, Ibrahim Dikko, did not give details of the new shareholding structure and the likely trading name, earlier feelers on the matter on Tuesday indicated that the company will meet today with the banks, the telecoms regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to weigh options.
However, Dikko was quick to allude that discussions were still ongoing regarding other issues such as the trading name during the transition phase.
Business Hilights also gathered earlier yesterday that Etisalat Group, the parent company of Etisalat Nigeria, equally same day announced the changes to Etisalat Nigeria’s shareholding in a letter filed to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirate.
UAE’s Etisalat (Etisalat Group), with a 45 per cent stake in the Nigerian arm, also said it had been ordered to transfer its shares to a loan trustee by June 23, after negotiations failed, Reuters reported, hinting that the company was carrying the stake at nil value.
Here in Nigeria, the company known as Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Limited, also known as Etisalat Nigeria, has up to June 23, 2017 to complete the transfer of 100 per cent of the company’s shares in Etisalat Nigeria to the United Capital Trustees Limited, the legal representative of the consortium of 13 banks.
According to Dikko, the management was continuing to run the business after the shareholding changes and that there were contractual and regulator issues to be finalised.
It would be recalled that during the visit of the officials of the parent group who met with Acting President and the NCC, the industry regulators tried to prevent the banks from placing the Etisalat into receivership to avoid a wider debt crisis and agreed with banks to pursue a default deal.
However, the superior fire power of the consortium of banks yesterday forced the telecom group to bend to their terms leading to the latest development.
Business Hilights had reported on Monday that a top official of one of the aggrieved banks, top official of one of the new generation bank that was also named in the Nigerian Customs N30tn infractions by the Senate confided in Business Hilights that “Some of us (the banks) may not take further excuses after this week because we think we have sacrificed much for the telecom in the spirit of Nigerian project”.
Though the banker failed to give more details on what the banks may be up to in the event of further collapse of talks, Etisalat in a statement weekend, denied report that its majority shareholder, Mubadala Development Company, from the United Arab Emirate has lost interest in the ongoing revival efforts.
Our report on Monday had predicted that decision on the destiny of Etisalat will be made before the end of this week which has come to pass.
