BPE offers FG shares in 8 oil servicing coys for sale
The Bureau of Public
Enterprises (BPE) today in Abuja offered 36.6 per cent federal government shares in eight oil servicing companies for sale to private investors.
The companies are Baker Nig. Ltd., Baroid Drilling Chemical Products Nigeria Limited, Baroid Nigeria Limited, Dowell Schlumberger Nigeria Ltd., and M-I Nig Limited.
Others are Schlumberger Testing and Production Services Ltd, Sedco Forex of Nigeria Ltd and Solus Schall Nig. Limited.
Fifty-two private investors had signified interest to participate in the bidding which was conducted by BPE and the ministry of petroleum resources.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that
four to six of the 52 investors jointly bided to acquire government shares in the eight oil servicing companies.
Three companies, Baker Hughes Nigeria Limited, AP Oilfield Services and Baklang Consultants won their bids.
Baker Hughes Nigeria Ltd paid N21,882,645.00 to acquire 7.9 per cent government shares, while AP Oil Services Ltd paid N77,760,000.00 to acquire 8.1 per cent FG shares.
Baklang Consultants paid N2,999,998.80k to acquire 8.1 per cent government shares.
Bidding for five other oil servicing companies were inconclusive.
Speaking before the opening of the financial bids, BPE Director-General Irene Chigbue said her office received about 100 Expressions of Interest after the May 22, 2005 deadline for companies to submit their bids.
``In line with our privatisation process, a rigorous evaluation exercise was undertaken by a team of evaluators upon which 71 companies were short listed according to the minimum scoring benchmark for pre-qualification,'' she said.
Chigbue disclosed that of the 71 companies short listed, 52 met the deadline for payment of
3,000 dollars non-refundable fee to qualify as eligible participants in the bidding exercise.
She said the 36.6 per cent FG shares in the five oil servicing companies were broken into four blocks, adding that each of the 52 bidding companies were requested to bid for a block.