ESB International is among eight international firms invited to bid for Uganda's electricity and distribution companies.

In the past, ESB International had expressed an interest in the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company.

Uganda's utility reform unit invited pre-qualification bids earlier this week for 20-year concessions in both the distribution company and Uganda Electricity Generation Company.

The invitation forms part of the final stages of the privatisation of the Uganda Electricity Board which was unbundled into generation, transmission and distribution units last March in preparation for eventual privatisation.

The distribution concession had 160,00 clients and annual revenues of $46.24 million in 2000. The generation concession is made up of an installed capacity of 260 mega-watts and has an asset value of $307 million.

Last month, the Government blocked the ESB from making a bid thought to be in excess of £1 billion for eight electricity distribution companies in Poland. The Ugandan bid is of a much smaller scale than the Polish one and of a different nature in that it is for concessions rather than outright ownership.