By Olabisi Olaleye
Talks between the Nigerian arm of Abu Dhabi’s Etisalat and 13 local banks to renegotiate the terms of a $1.2 billion loan are continuing and progress has been made, the company said on Wednesday.
The telecoms company signed the seven-year facility with 13 local banks in 2013 to refinance a $650 million loan and fund expansion of its network but is now struggling to repay the debt.
The talks had been deadlocked on Tuesday but that lenders, under pressure to avoid loan-loss provisions, were pushing to finalise the restructuring before next month’s half-yearly audit.
Meanwhile, Vice President, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs,Etisalat Nigeria, Ibrahim Dikko has denied that the on-going discussions with consortium of bankers are stalled or reached a deadlock.”
He said that without equivocation that discussions are not only ongoing with “Our bankers, but good progress has been made so far. We are optimistic that an agreement will be reached shortly and this will be communicated through the appropriate channels of the involved stakeholders.
“ We appeal to our media partners who have indeed been critical to the success of our business over the years, to await the official communication of the outcome of the ongoing discussions and not lend their credible platforms to speculative and presumptive analysis of the discussions”.
He further stated that the immediate focus is to ensure that we not only sustain a positive performance, but that we are in a position to continue to grow the business, deliver excellent customer service and increase value to our stakeholders which includes our bankers.
“We are optimistic that an agreement will be reached shortly.” Nigeria’s No.4 mobile operator, with 20 million subscribers for a 14 percent market share, has the largest dollar exposure in Nigeria since the outset of dollar shortages plaguing Nigeria’s financial system.
Companies invested aggressively in Nigeria during the era of high oil prices but are now struggling to repay loans as the government contends with a slump in oil revenue that has hit currency and dollar reserves.
