Teleology Holdings — the preferred bidder of 9mobile — has hired a global financial service firm to raise a $300 million bridge loan to seal the acquisition deal.
According to a report by The Guardian, Teleology had sought out the service of USB, to raise bridge loan from local banks and investors. And the balance of $200 million will be raised through equity. This is in contrary to a recent report that Teleology actually offered $301 million to beat Smile Communications' $300 million bid.
The acquisition process was recently put on hold by an order of the Federal High Court, Abuja. Two companies that claimed to be major stakeholders of 9mobile had earlier headed to the court to asked for a refund of $43,330,950, which was the amount they invested in the company.
The fate of the entire acquisition process is no longer on the court case alone, Teleology Holdings has to raise the total $500 million for a successful acquisition.
For the court case, local councils overseeing the case had already granted an informal approval for the continuation of the acquisition process which means that Teleology is left with making sure that the total fund is raised before the 90-day window lapse. The company also has to scale through NCC's technical capability examination.