A total of 28 firms that had expressed interest in the acquisition of majority stake in Afam Power Plc and Kaduna Distribution Company failed to submit their financial and technical bids at the expiration of the deadline on Tuesday.
A statement issued by the Head of Public Communication, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe, in Abuja on Wednesday, confirmed that the agency received only 20 bids by the end of the deadline.
Nine bids were received for Afam, while 11 were submitted for the Kaduna Distribution Company.
Anichebe said, “At the deadline of January 31, 2013 for the submission of Expressions of Interest from prospective bidders for the two companies, BPE received 19 applications for Kaduna Disco and 29 applications for Afam Generation Company.
“Consequently, the Bureau, on February 4, 2013, sent Requests for Proposals to the 48 prospective bidders.”
Afam Power Plc and Kaduna Electricity Distribution Plc were among the 17 PHCN successor companies that were advertised for sale in December 2010, and both, along with the others, went through a tender process, which culminated in the submission of technical and financial proposals in July 2012.
However, none of the bids received for both firms scored the minimum 75 per cent required to progress to the financial bid stage.
This compelled the National Council on Privatisation headed by Vice President Namadi Sambo to order a re-run of the entire transaction.
When the BPE announced the fresh offer of the two companies, a total of 48 companies submitted Expressions of Interest to acquire 60 per cent equity in both Afam and Kaduna.
Already, 15 of the successor companies have got preferred bidders, who beat the March 21 deadline to pay 25 per cent of the bid prices.