By Gugulakhe Lourie
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 22 (Reuters) - There are eight suitors left in the race to buy Zamtel, Zambia's fixed-line telephone operator, including South Africa's Telkom and India's MTNL, the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) said on Thursday.
The Zambian government, which is offering between 51 and 75 percent of its Zamtel stake, has received more than 30 expressions of interest through the ZDA, which is handling the sale.
ZDA said it had shortlisted eight prequalified bidders, who will start due diligence procedures on Nov. 2.
The bidding process for Zamtel, which also has a mobile operator, Cell-Z, is likely to be completed in the first quarter of 2010.
South Africa's Telkom, Africa's biggest fixed-line operator, which is sitting on about 10 billion rand ($1.35 billion) after selling its mobile unit Vodacom to Britain's Vodafone, is on the shortlist.
Telkom will be competing with two Indian state-run telecoms companies, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.
Others on the shortlist are: a consortium of Egypt's Orascom Telecom and its subsidiary Telecel Globe; Angola's UNITEL -- a consortium of Unitel S.A and Angola Cables S.A; Portugal Telecom; and a consortium of Libya's LAP Greencom and LAP Green Networks.
ZDA said a consortium of Russia's second-biggest mobile phone operator Vimpelcom and Altimo, the telecoms arm of Russia's Alfa Group, were also on the list, though Vimpelcom denied it was involved.
'Vimpelcom did not take part in this process. Vimpelcom is not bidding for Zamtel,' its Chief Executive Boris Nemsic told Reuters Television.
Altimo Senior Vice President Kirill Babayev did not confirm his company was bidding for Zamtel, saying only that Altimo was 'studying various investment opportunities in Africa but it is too early to talk about specific projects'.
Alfa and the other key shareholder in Vimpelcom, Norwegian telecoms group Telenor, this month ended one of Russia's longest corporate wars by merging Vimpelcom with their holdings in Ukrainian operator Kyivstar.
The long-planned privatisation of Zamtel has been criticised by opposition politicians, who say Zambians should hold a bigger stake in the company.
Zamtel's revenue for the year to end-December was $100 million. It is Zambia's only licensed fixed-line provider of voice and data communications.
(Additional reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Kiryl Sukhotski in Moscow, editing by Will Waterman)
($1=7.398 Rand) (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://af.reuters.com/) (gugu.lourie@thomsonreuters.com; +27 11 775 3162; Reuters Messaging: gugu.lourie.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 22 (Reuters) - There are eight suitors left in the race to buy Zamtel, Zambia's fixed-line telephone operator, including South Africa's Telkom and India's MTNL, the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) said on Thursday.
The Zambian government, which is offering between 51 and 75 percent of its Zamtel stake, has received more than 30 expressions of interest through the ZDA, which is handling the sale.
ZDA said it had shortlisted eight prequalified bidders, who will start due diligence procedures on Nov. 2.
The bidding process for Zamtel, which also has a mobile operator, Cell-Z, is likely to be completed in the first quarter of 2010.
South Africa's Telkom, Africa's biggest fixed-line operator, which is sitting on about 10 billion rand ($1.35 billion) after selling its mobile unit Vodacom to Britain's Vodafone, is on the shortlist.
Telkom will be competing with two Indian state-run telecoms companies, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.
Others on the shortlist are: a consortium of Egypt's Orascom Telecom and its subsidiary Telecel Globe; Angola's UNITEL -- a consortium of Unitel S.A and Angola Cables S.A; Portugal Telecom; and a consortium of Libya's LAP Greencom and LAP Green Networks.
ZDA said a consortium of Russia's second-biggest mobile phone operator Vimpelcom and Altimo, the telecoms arm of Russia's Alfa Group, were also on the list, though Vimpelcom denied it was involved.
'Vimpelcom did not take part in this process. Vimpelcom is not bidding for Zamtel,' its Chief Executive Boris Nemsic told Reuters Television.
Altimo Senior Vice President Kirill Babayev did not confirm his company was bidding for Zamtel, saying only that Altimo was 'studying various investment opportunities in Africa but it is too early to talk about specific projects'.
Alfa and the other key shareholder in Vimpelcom, Norwegian telecoms group Telenor, this month ended one of Russia's longest corporate wars by merging Vimpelcom with their holdings in Ukrainian operator Kyivstar.
The long-planned privatisation of Zamtel has been criticised by opposition politicians, who say Zambians should hold a bigger stake in the company.
Zamtel's revenue for the year to end-December was $100 million. It is Zambia's only licensed fixed-line provider of voice and data communications.
(Additional reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Kiryl Sukhotski in Moscow, editing by Will Waterman)
($1=7.398 Rand) (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://af.reuters.com/) (gugu.lourie@thomsonreuters.com; +27 11 775 3162; Reuters Messaging: gugu.lourie.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
