*Investors get final bid documents next week
8 December 2011, Sweetcrude, ABUJA – Nigeria will on Wednesday next week move a step further in its plan to open up its power sector to investors as the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) issue final bid documents to potential investors in the successor companies to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
As part of the power sector reform agenda, Nigeria plans to sell PHCN’s 11distribution companies, six generation companies and one transmission company to bring private hands into the power sector and help address its perennial power crisis.
Some of the electricity distribution companies slated for sale are the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company Plc, Benin Electricity Distribution Company Plc, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc, Eko Electricity Distribution Company Plc, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company Plc, and Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company Plc.
Mr. Chukwuma Nwokoh, BPE spokesman, said distribution of the final bid documents to potential investors was necessary because it will guide them on the right track to having a successful bid.
Moreover, he said the document released to investors earlier in August this year was vesting document, a working document with notes from privatisation advisors, which did not reflect the final position of the Nigerian government.
He said: “At the conference held on November 28, more than 800 stakeholders attended and made their contributions. Some of those contributions have to be incorporated into the final bid documents.”
The bid documents contain information to help potential investors prepare financial and technical bids, and include the Information Memorandum, Vesting Contract and Power Purchase Agreement.
Nwokoh confirmed that investors bidding for the generation firms must submit their bids by January 30, 2012, while those bidding for the distribution firms must submit their bids by February 13, 2012.
Dangote Industries Limited, Oando Plc, Essar Consortium, Honeywell Energy Resources International Limited, Kenya Electric Generating Company, Odu’a Distribution Company Limited and Rockson Engineering are among the prominent firms participating in the exercise and are expected to receive the final bid documents.
Some of the companies with the highest number of applications for the power companies include AES Corporation, Aiteo Consortium and Amperion Power Distribution Company. Each of them submitted six applications.
Actis Infrastructure, Conpower Consortium and Utility Integrated Management Services submitted five applications each.
First Western Power Consortium, Globeleg Advisors Limited, Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Limited, Kepco/NEDC Consortium, Optimex Energy Solution Limited and Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited applied for four of the power companies each.
