BPE opens bids today for Afam, Kaduna power plants

By The Citizen

The 20 bidders whose bids met the guidelines for acquisition of majority stakes in Afam Power Plc and Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company will know their fate today as the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) prepares to open their financial bids in Abuja.

 The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) chaired by Vice-president Namadi Sambo approved a short list of bidders recently. Afam Power Plc and Kaduna Distribution Company are two of the 18 successors companies carved out of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria Plc.

 The privatisation agency had last week dispatched letters to the shortlisted bidders to come for the bid opening ceremony to be held in Abuja today.

 Although a total of 48 firms had expressed interest in the acquisition of majority stakes in the Afam and Kaduna power plants, 28 failed to submit their financial and technical bids by the end of the deadline.

BPE said, earlier in a statement, that as at the expiration of the Tuesday, April 16, 2013, deadline for the submission of bids by prospective investors for the Afam Power Plc and Kaduna Distribution companies, 20 prospective investors met the stipulated conditions.

 According to the BPE, a breakdown showed that nine bids were received for Afam Power Plc and 11 for Kaduna Distribution Company. Chigbo Anichebe, BPE head, public communications, affirmed that the BPE had earlier set January 31, 2013, deadline for the submission of Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from prospective bidders for the two companies and received 19 applications for Kaduna Disco and 29 applications for Afam Generation Company.

It added: 'Consequently, the Bureau, on February 4, 2013, sent Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to the 48 prospective bidders.'

The BPE disclosed that a committee was set up to evaluate the process and came out with a report. The Afam Power Plc and Kaduna Electricity Distribution Plc were among the 18 PHCN successor companies that were earlier advertised for sale in December 2010 along with the 15 others that went through a full competitive tender process which culminated in the submission of technical and financial proposals in July 2012.

 However, following the rigorous technical evaluation that all bids were subjected to, none of the bids received for Afam Power Plc and Kaduna Electricity Distribution Plc scored the minimum 75 per cent required to progress to the financial bid stage.

This development compelled the NCP to order a re-run of the entire transaction, as it was not prepared to settle for a second best.