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Etisalat Nigeria Limited board of directors may be dissolved any moment as its largest shareholder, Mubadala Development Company of United Arab Emirates, has pulled out its investment and headed out of the country.
Sources familiar with the latest troubles in Etisalat Nigerian confided in Premium Times.
Mubadala, an Abu Dhabi Government-owned investment and development company, reportedly controls about 70 per cent of the shares in Etisalat along with Etisalat UAE mobile, with Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services (EMTS, promoted by Hakeem Bello-Osagie, owning the remaining 30 per cent.
The UAE investor has hinted Etisalat Nigeria as well as the industry regulator, Nigerian Telecommunications Commission (NCC) of its decision to opt out of the joint ownership of the company, a source told Premium.
Etisalat has been facing huge financial crisis following pressures on it by a consortium of some foreign and Nigerian banks, led by Access Bank, to recover a $1.72 billion (about N541.8 billion) loan facility the company obtained in 2015.
The loan, which involved a foreign-backed guaranty bond, was for Etisalat to finance a major network rehabilitation and expansion of its operational base in Nigeria.
Its inability to meet its debt servicing obligation agreed since 2016 compelled the consortium of banks, prodded by their foreign partners, to take up the matter with the Central Bank of Nigeria and the NCC.
The intervention of the two regulatory authorities persuaded the banks to suspend their decision to take over the mobile telephone company, giving it opportunity to renegotiate and reschedule the loan.
Representative of the company, Seyi Osunfedo, claimed ignorant of the pull out.
Sources familiar with the latest troubles in Etisalat Nigerian confided in Premium Times.
Mubadala, an Abu Dhabi Government-owned investment and development company, reportedly controls about 70 per cent of the shares in Etisalat along with Etisalat UAE mobile, with Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services (EMTS, promoted by Hakeem Bello-Osagie, owning the remaining 30 per cent.
The UAE investor has hinted Etisalat Nigeria as well as the industry regulator, Nigerian Telecommunications Commission (NCC) of its decision to opt out of the joint ownership of the company, a source told Premium.
Etisalat has been facing huge financial crisis following pressures on it by a consortium of some foreign and Nigerian banks, led by Access Bank, to recover a $1.72 billion (about N541.8 billion) loan facility the company obtained in 2015.
The loan, which involved a foreign-backed guaranty bond, was for Etisalat to finance a major network rehabilitation and expansion of its operational base in Nigeria.
Its inability to meet its debt servicing obligation agreed since 2016 compelled the consortium of banks, prodded by their foreign partners, to take up the matter with the Central Bank of Nigeria and the NCC.
The intervention of the two regulatory authorities persuaded the banks to suspend their decision to take over the mobile telephone company, giving it opportunity to renegotiate and reschedule the loan.
Representative of the company, Seyi Osunfedo, claimed ignorant of the pull out.