There is air of uncertainty over the sale of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company following the alleged failure of the reserve bidder, North South Power Limited, to meet the payment deadline.
Information made available to DAILY POST said North South Power, the reserve bidder in the sale of the electricity distribution company was given 15 days to pay the purchase price deposit after the preferred bidder, Fini Standard Limited was knocked out of the ownership race for similar reasons.
It was gathered that the reserve bidder is making frantic efforts to close the transaction.
It was learnt that although Fini Standard raised the required sum of money a day after the expiration of the 15 days window, its bid was rejected because the money did not arrive within the agreed period.
It is not clear how the transaction would be structured going forward, especially since the reserve bidder has been unable to make the purchase price deposit, more than 48 hours after the expiration of the payment window on December 17.
It also revealed that the core investor in Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, KANN Utility Company Limited, a 60 percent joint venture of the Copperbelt Energy Corporation plc (CEC), a leading Zambian energy company and a Nigerian investor, is pulling out of the Abuja Electric following boardroom squabbles chiefly instigated by its inability to repay the loans if took from a bank to secure the distribution company.
KANN Utility Company Limited does not appear to be able to continue to carry the load of ownership of the Disco, amid rising financial obligations following pressure from its bankers to retire loans secured to purchase the company, and from the regulator to perform its obligations to the Disco.
It is not clear if there is going to be a fresh bid or the approach that the bank in question intends to take now.
Since the privatisation of the power sector, Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) have struggled to repay loans used in financing their purchase. Discos account for 5 percent of non-performing loans in some of Nigeria’s top lenders.
