Ehis Nzewuji May 7, 2019

Transcorp Power Consortium, Quest Electricity Win Bids for Afam GenCo, Yola DisCo

Transcorp Power Consortium has emerged the preferred bidder for Afam Power (Afam Power Plc & Afam Three Fast Power Limited) with a bid price of N105.3 billion to beat DiamondStripes Consortium which bid N102. 388 billion.

Similarly, Quest Electricity Nigeria Limited emerged the preferred bidder for the Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC) with a bid price of N19 billion.Quest Electricity was the sole bidder for the Yola electricity company.

Thus, at the highly-applauded commercial/financial bids for the two power companies which held in Abuja on Tuesday, April 30, 2019, Transcorp Consortium was declared the winning bid while Diamond Stripes Consortium emerged the  runner-up.

The ground rules for the bid were in seven stages, which opened with the first bids. Quest Electricity Nigeria Limited first round financial bid was below the reserved price. Therefore, the Chairman of the event, Dr. Ayo Teriba who represented the Chairman of the Technical Committee (TC) of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), Mr. M. K. Ahmad, announced that the company needed to increase its bid price. As contained in the ground rules, the bidders for the two power entities were given 15 minutes within which to revise their financial bids.

In the first bid, Transcorp Power Consortium made a bid of N85.1 billion; Unicorn Power Consortium, N95.67 billion and Diamond Stripes, N69. 27 billion as well as the Quest Electricity, which offered, N16.7 billion for Yola Disco.

During the revised bids, Transcorp Power Consortium jerked up its offer to N105.03 billion; Diamond Stripes Consortium offered to pay N102.388billion while Unicorn Power Consortium offered N101.05 billion for the assets.

The sole bidder for Yola Disco – Quest Electricity, which offered to pay N16. 77 billion, increased its bid price to N19 billion.

In his opening address, the Director General of BPE, Mr. Alex Okoh, recalled that in line with the approval of National Council on Privatisation (NCP), the BPE placed an advertisement in relevant newspapers to call for Expressions of Interest from prospective bidders for the acquisition of the two power firms.

The power assets to acquire, he said, included100 per cent of the equity capital of Afam Power Plc, 100 per cent of the share capital of Afam Three Fast Power Limited (ATFPL), jointly called Afam Power.

He said the publication also called for Expressions of Interest in the acquisition of 60 per cent of the share capital of Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC).

Okoh recalled that at the expiration of the deadline for the submission, Expression of Interests (EOIs) were received from 12 firms and consortia for Afam Power.

“After the evaluation of the EOIs, nine firms obtained the qualifying mark and were consequently short-listed to progress to the Request for Proposal (RfP) stage,” he said.

He said in the Yola Disco transaction, EOIs were received from eight firms which after the evaluation of the submissions, five firms obtained the qualifying mark and were subsequently shortlisted to progress to the Request for Proposal (RfP) stage.

The DG explained: “In order to facilitate informed technical and financial bids, all the firms and consortia were provided access to virtual and physical data rooms, as well as site visits to the enterprises between December 4, 2018 and January 25, 2019.

“The prospective bidders interacted with the management of the companies and also conducted physical inspection of the plants and the franchise assets.

“The deadline for the submission of the technical and financial bids was fixed for March 15, 2019. On the appointed date, BPE received technical and financial proposals from three firms/consortia out of the nine pre-qualified for Afam Power, and proposals for two firms out of the five  pre-qualified for YEDC.

“The technical proposals were opened publicly to ascertain compliance with the requirements in the RfP. Bidders had been instructed to include a Bank Guarantee as a precondition for the receipt and evaluation of their bids”, he stated.

Sandstream Nigeria Limited, one of the bidders which submitted bid for the Yola Disco failed to submit a Bank Guarantee along with its proposal as required by the Request for Proposals (RfPs). Consequently its submission was declared non-responsive and rejected.

Various stakeholders, who were at the event, commended the Bureau for the transparency it handled the transactions. In her comments, the representative of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Aisha Mahmud commended the Bureau for the transparent manner it handed the bids opening. She noted that the power sector is presently grappling with numerous challenges such as liquidity, non-cost reflective tariff and others.

She however said that the regulator is working hard to ensure that there is a functional electricity sector and that by next year there is a high hope that everything would have been put in order for the efficiency of the industry.

Representatives of the Economics and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Directorate of State Services were present at the ceremony to ensure its transparency.

The emergence of the two preferred bidders is however, subject to the approval of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP).

 Amina  Tukur Othman

Head, Public Communications

May 7, 2019.