82 firms in race for power plants

The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) and
the Board of the Niger Delta Power Holding
Company Limited (NDPHC), have approved the
pre-qualification of 82 consortia for power
plants. Among them are Dangote Industries
Limited/Sewa West Africa Limited, Dangote Industries Limited/ESSAR Power, Dangote
Industries Limited/Sogenal Limited and 78
other consortia for the purchase of 80% equity
in the 10 National Integrated Power Projects
(NIPP). According to a statement by the Head, Public
Communications, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe, the
appoval was from the 386 expressions of
interest (EOIs) submitted by 82 of the 110
consortia that earlier expressed interest in the
acquisition of 80% equity in the power plants. The NIPPs are jointly owned by the Federal,
State and Local Governments. The council, according to the statement,
approved the prequalification at its meeting
last Monday. The 82 consortia have been prequalified to
move to the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage
of the transaction. Some of the consotia are: Omotosho Electric
Energy Company, SEPCO-Pacific Energy Partners Limited, PPN
Power Generating Company Ltd, AFC and
Globeleq Consortium, AFC, Globeleq and Vigeo
Consortium, Spark Generation Power Company and Calls
Power Consortium and Transcorp – GE
Consortium. Also on the list are: Neon Electric Power
Consortium, CET Power Consortium Azura
Benin Generation Consortium, Azura Calabar
Generation Consortium WorleyParsons/DeltaAfrik, Arrow Capital/
WorleyParsons Consortium Power Ventures Consortium, Paragon
Consortium, OPG Power Ventures (with GE
International), OPG Power Ventures (with
Sogex), OPG Power Ventures (with Thomassen
Holding Limited and Marine Power Limited) and
others. Meanwhile, BPE noted that the number of
expressions of interest for each of the 10
generation plants include: Gbarain Generation
Company – 46, Benin Generation Company – 44, Omotosho
Generation Company – 42, Egbema Generation
Company – 41, Omoku Generation Company –
41, Geregu Generation Company – 39, Calabar
Generation Company – 37, Ogorode Generation
Company – 36, Alaoji Generation Company – 30 and Olorunsogo Generation Company – 30. The statement recalled that at the close of the
deadline for the submission of expressions of
interest (EOIs) by prospective investors on 19
July, 110 consortia submitted expressions of
interest. BPE said: “Two evaluation teams were
thereafter constituted to evaluate the
submissions based on the approved guidelines.
The guidelines provided that to be technically
qualified, bidders must show evidence of
experience in operating at least 300 MW of thermal generation plant for at least three
years and to be deemed financially qualified,
meet a tangible net worth threshold of $100-$
200 million depending, on the size of plant they
wish to be prequalified for, among other
requirements. “Following the evaluation, 82 of the 110
submissions were successful and have been
approved to continue to the Request for
Proposal (RFP) stage The Joint Board equally approved the issuance
of the request for proposals (RFP) to the
prequalified bidders from the 19th of August. “Joint Board further approved the
recommendation of the Joint Technical
Transaction Committee (JTTC) to allow
Technical Services Providers (TSP), with no
equity stake in the consortia, to participate in
the privatisation process with as many bidders as it chooses. “The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and
Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC)
are partners in the joint sale transaction
process for the sale of the 10 power plants.
While NCP and the BPE are legally authorized to
sell Federal Government’s 47% shares, NDPHC has the authorisation of the States and LGA’s
to sell 53% of their shares. The joint meeting
was chaired by Vice President Mohammed
Namadi Sambo.”