OpeOluwani Akintayo
27 September 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos – Forte Oil Plc has embarked on ‘Book building’ ahead of its plan to raise fresh capital for its business.
Book building is a systematic process of generating, capturing, and recording investor demand for shares during an initial public offering, Initial Public Offer, IPO, or other securities during their issuance process, in order to support efficient price discovery.
In this era of reduction in transaction costs, Book building is viewed as a less expensive and less time consuming process of offering securities to the public in such a way that the value of the issuer is reflected.
In a letter to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, on September 15 seen by SweetcrudeReports, the company notified NSE that the Security and Exchange Commission, SEC, had approved for it to sell its shares.
However, the company’s board said it has put the sale on holding pending the conclusion of an ongoing restructuring in the company.
The letter read in part: “Forte oil wished to notify the Nigerian Stock Exchange, investing public and its stakeholders that the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the Company’s proposed offering by way of Book Building”.
“However, the Board of Forte Oil has taken a strategic decision to put the offering on hold pending the conclusion of an ongoing corporate restructuring with respect to maximising the emerging opportunities in the Nigerian energy sector (Oil, Gas and Power) which will be the ultimate benefit of all our stakeholders”.
