Mr Femi Otedola, the Chairman of Forte Oil Plc, has announced the completion of the sale of all his shares in the firm’s downstream and upstream businesses.
Forte Oil had disclosed on December 24, 2018, 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 per cent direct and indirect shareholding in the company’s downstream business.
Otedola, on his verified Instagram handle on Wednesday, said he had exited the downstream and upstream sub-sectors of the oil and gas industry but he did not disclose the buyer of his stakes in the upstream business.
He said, “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.”
The divestment comes more than three years after the firm sold 17 per cent 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 per cent to close at N34.65.
In October 2015, the firm announced that the Mercuria Energy Group Holdings SA had acquired 17 per cent of its equity, valued at $200m.
