Comium being wooed
Globacom bids $600 million

Billionaire Mike Adenuga would invest
$1 billion to upgrade Comium’s network

Comium Côte d’Ivoire (CCI), a subsidiary of the local telecommunications company, Comium Group owned by entrepreneur Nizar Dalloul, has received a purchase offer from the Nigerian telecommunications company, Globacom.

Globacom’s founder, Nigerian billionaire Mike Adenuga, has informed shareholders that he has made a bid to buy CCI for $600 million including its debt, according to market reports.

CCI’s reported debt problems are estimated at $25 million. It is liable for remaining funds to be paid toward its license, in addition to $29 million in fines for not delivering on licensing terms. The Ivorian telecom authorities have required payment of these duties by May 15.

Globacom plans to invest more than $1 billion in upgrading Comium’s Ivorian network over three years, if the deal is successfully concluded.

CCI entered the Ivorian market in the summer 2007 through the commercial Ivorian brand KoZ.

Comium Group operates throughout Africa and the Middle East, and with its partners in the USA, Europe and Brazil. It provides mobile, voice, data and Internet services, with a customer base of over three million.

Dalloul is also Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Xplorium, a locally based international voice carrier that provides telecommunication solutions. He established LibanCell in 1994 with other investors. LibanCell won the GSM license and became one of the two mobile service operators. The other operator was Cellis.

Both Dalloul and Adenuga were not available for comment on details of the bid.

Mike Adenuga, 63, is the second richest man in Nigeria with a fortune currently estimated at $4.2 billion, according to Forbes Magazine. His company, Globacom began operations in 2003 and currently operates in Nigeria, the Republic of Benin, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.