OTEDOLA SELLS FORTE OIL, SHIFTS FOCUS ON POWER GENERATION

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Joseph Omoniyi

Chairman of Forte Oil Plc, Mr Femi Otedola, said he had exited the downstream and upstream sub-sectors of the oil and gas industry after he completed the sale of all his shares in the firm.

The Nigerian billionaire who made this known on his verified Instgram page on Wednesday also disclosed that his next investment focus will be on Nigeria’s power generation business.

He wrote;

“A few years ago, my team and I embarked on an arduous task of transforming a moribund petroleum marketing business, African Petroleum Plc (formerly British Petroleum) into Forte Oil Plc – a leading integrated solutions provider with solid footprints in downstream petroleum marketing, upstream services and power generation and one in which we built intrinsic value to the benefits of our shareholders.

“In line with my principle of business focus, we have divested from our marketing and upstream businesses and shall from now on focus and consolidate on the gains of our power generation business, Geregu Power Plc.

“We wish our successors the very best and urge them to build on our legacies, which have been established since 1964.”

Forte Oil had on December 24, 2018, hinted at the divestment by its majority shareholder, with Otedola saying he had reached an agreement with the Prudent Energy team, investing through Ignite Investments and Commodities Limited, to divest of his full 75 percent direct and indirect shareholding in the company’s downstream business.

In October 2015, the firm announced that the Mercuria Energy Group Holdings SA had acquired 17 percent of its equity, valued at $200m.

The divestment comes more than three years after the firm sold 17 percent of its equity to a Swiss oil trading firm.

Forte Oil emerged the biggest gainer at the end of trading on the NSE on Wednesday as its share price rose by 10 percent to close at N34.65.

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