BEVERLY HILLS, July 05, (THEWILL) – Etisalat Nigeria has been saved from collapse following the intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, after talks with local banks to renegotiate a $1.2 billion loan failed.
A regulatory source disclosed this to Reuters.
Etisalat Nigeria is the biggest foreign-owned victim of dollar shortages plaguing the country due to lower oil prices and economic recession, leaving the company struggling to make repayments to lenders and suppliers.
The NCC said Etisalat Nigeria and its creditors have reached a resolution on key issues on the indebtedness and that a transition process was continuing on mutually agreed terms.
It said the resolution would ensure that Etisalat Nigeria was maintained as a going concern regardless of changes in the company’s shareholders.
As a result the company has appointed the central bank’s deputy governor Joseph Nnanna as chairman, Boye Olusanya as chief executive and Funke Ighodaro as chief financial officer, Etisalat Nigeria’s vice president for regulatory affairs, Ibrahim Dikko, told Reuters.
The regulatory source said the central bank had provided assurances to lenders but had not invested any funds, adding that the company’s minority owner, Abu Dhabi’s Etisalat, has indicated it may pull out of Nigeria following the debt crisis but has not made a decision on the use of its brand in the country.
On June 23, the central bank said Abu Dhabi state investment fund Mubadala, which had a 40 percent stake in Etisalat Nigeria, had already pulled out of the company and the debt negotiations.
The 13 lenders involved in the $1.2 billion loan deal arranged for Etisalat four years ago, have been under pressure to avoid loan-loss provisions and were pushing to finalise a restructuring before half-yearly audits due in June.
