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Business
Words in the News
Thursday 28 March 2002
Vocabulary from the business news. Listen to and read the report
then find explanations of difficult words below.
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Nigerian Privatisation Deal Collapsed
Summary: One of Africa's largest ever privatisation deals has collapsed. The purchaser of a majority stake in Nigeria's state owned telecoms company Nitel, failed to meet a Monday deadline to raise the required funds. This report from Dan Isaacs:
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The
News 
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There's no putting a brave face on it, this is a huge setback for the country's privatisation programme. The Nigerian government had bent over backwards to accommodate the purchaser's pleas for an extension to the payment deadline. But in the end the axe has come down on the entire deal. International Investors London, lose their ten per cent deposit, a cool hundred and thirty-one million US dollars, and there's no second bidder in the wings ready to take over.
Just a few weeks ago, the bidding consortium had pleaded with the government for more time to raise the money, citing a fall in investor confidence as a result of increasing concerns over political stability in Nigeria. The buyers had also pointed to a government announcement that a second telecoms license is to be issued in direct competition with Nitel, substantially reducing Nitel's value as a monopoly operator. There is a desperate need for an efficient telephone network in Nigeria, there are only three land lines per thousand people, one of the lowest connectivity rates in the world.
The plan now is to sell shares in Nitel on the Nigerian stock exchange, and for a foreign operator to takeover the running of the company on a management contract. That is if one can be found to take it on. In its statement on Monday the government said privatisation of Nitel had been put into temporary abeyance, but it's difficult to see how such a financial and public relations disaster can now be turned round into a successful sell off.
Dan Issacs, BBC, Lagos
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The
Words
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putting a brave face on
if you are putting a brave face on a difficult situation, you are pretending that the situation is not as bad as it really is
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setback
an event that delays something or make the situation worse than before
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bent over backwards
done everything possible in order to achieve something
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the axe has come down
the decision to end something has been made
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in the wings
waiting, as a second choice
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citing
quoting or mentioning something as proof
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substantially
considerably, greatly
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monopoly operator
here, the only company that controls the telephone service
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abeyance
if something is in abeyance, it is not operating or being used at the moment
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sell off
sale of a state-owned company to a private one
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Read
more about this story |
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