Mubadala mulls up to 10 telecom bids for Nigeria

DUBAI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Development Co. said on Monday it was considering bids from as many as 10 telecom firms to set up operations in Nigeria after securing a license in Africa's most populous country.

Government-owned Mubadala paid $400 million for a license to offer mobile, fixed-line and broadband services in the country of 140 million people with around 20 million telephone users.

"We are looking for a partner," Mubadala's chief operating officer, Waleed al-Mokarrab al-Muhairi, told the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit in Dubai.

Mubadala was considering bids from between eight and 10 firms from the region for an operation that would require an investment of at least $500 million, Muhairi said, declining to identify them.

Mubadala owns a stake in Dubai's du DU.DU telecom and its parent, the government of Abu Dhabi, holds a majority stake in Emirates Telecommunications Corp. ETEL.AD. That did not make either operator more likely to win the contract, Muhairi said.

"All our deals are done at arm's length," he said. "Obviously experience operating in Africa would be an advantage."

Nigeria's mobile market is dominated by MTN, a unit of Johannesburg-based MTN Group (MTNJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), local firm Globacom, and Celtel, controlled by Africa's third-ranked mobile firm Celtel which is a unit of Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co. TELE.KW.

The Nigerian telecoms industry has attracted investments of over $10 billion in the last five years.