New Management Promises To Return Etisalat To Profitability

The newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Boye Olusanya, told Reuters that he promises to return the telecoms company back to profitability, while assuring subscribers of business continuity, despite the withdrawal of Etisalat Group from the Etisalat Nigeria business.

He also revealed that he was working on the paperwork to eventually raise new capital or the business.
“Our mandate is to make sure the business runs as profitably as it can. What is most important now is to ensure that the business runs and meets its obligations,” he said.

Nigerian regulators intervened last week to save Etisalat Nigeria after talks with its lenders to renegotiate a $1.2 billion loan from 2013 with 13 local lenders failed.
Etisalat Nigeria has 20 million subscribers, making it the country’s number four mobile operator with a 14 per cent market share.

South Africa’s MTN has 47 percent, Globacom 20 per cent and Airtel – a subsidiary of India’s Bharti Airtel – 19 per cent.
“Once we have gotten ourselves to where certain decisions are made and the structure and form of the business is formed then maybe we would look at a capital raising structure that would be suitable for the nature of how the business will be run,” the new CEO said yesterday.

Olusanya, who took over as CEO of Etisalat Nigeria following the appointment of a new board led by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said while the business could run without an immediate recapitalisation, he would not rule one out completely.
“Obviously if its possible to do it tomorrow we will do it, because that enhances the ability of this business to roll-out quickly, to get more subscribers, which is what everybody wants,” he added.
“We are still in negotiations with Etisalat over the use of the brand name,” Olusanya said, adding that the technical service agreement with Etisalat covered the brand name