Just In: Femi Otedola finally exits Forte Oil to chair new company

Chairman of Forte Oil Plc., Femi Otedola has announced his exit from the petroleum marketing company to narrow his focus and interest on a power generation business, following the sale of  the entirety of his 75 per cent direct and indirect shareholdings in the company and the group’s diversification from marketing and upstream sector to power generation.

The Zenon Petroleum Founder who disclosed this on Wednesday via his Instagram page, noted that the decision to focus on Geregu Power Plc. which he recently invested in, as part of the liberalisation of the country’s power generation sector, is in line with the principle of his business focus and in order to consolidate on the gains of the power generation business.

“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,” he said.

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,” he added.

He had in December 2018 notified the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) through a letter that he was divesting from the company in order to “explore and maximise business opportunities in refining and petrochemicals.”

“Forte Oil Plc hereby notifies the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Securities and Exchange Commission, Shareholders and the investing community that its Majority Shareholder, Mr. Femi Otedola, CON has reached an agreement with the Prudent Energy team, investing through Ignite Investments and Commodities Limited, to divest of his full 75% direct and indirect shareholding in the Company’s downstream business,” the statement said.

The ‘new company,’ Geregu Power Plc. is one of the companies unbundled from the defunct PHCN on November 10 2006 with the sole interest of electricity generation through the use of gas Turbines. It started operations in 2007 with GT 13 and was officially commissioned by the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in February 2008.

 

 

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