Kunle Kalejaye 13 July 2016, Sweetcrude, Lagos – Oando Plc is to expand its downstream operations following a N70.5 billion cash injection resulting from a strategic alliance with Helios and Vitol, HV.
Oando completed the N70.5 billion recapitalisation of its downstream business with HV Investments II B.V., a joint venture owned by a fund advised by Helios Investment Partners, a premier Africa-focused private investment firm, and Vitol Group, the world’s largest independent trader of energy commodities and the ninth largest corporation in the world by revenue.The deal was first announced on June 30, 2015, and will see an immediate injection of an estimated N70.5 billion into Oando’s downstream operations and the larger Oando Group.
Commenting on the successful transaction, Oando Group Chief Executive Officer, Adewale Tinubu, said: “Despite global economic headwinds, we have taken the proactive approach to establish a strategic partnership which will leverage Oando’s sector dominance, considerable local knowledge and expertise, together with HVI’s vast international, financial, and technical capabilities. This partnership will reinvigorate Nigeria’s downstream sector and create one of Africa’s largest downstream operations.
“We take great pride in our origins as a predominantly downstream company, and we are extremely confident in the success and potential returns this alliance will deliver.”
Under the new business structure, Oando said all its retail stations will retain the Oando brand. However, Oando Downstream will be renamed OVH Energy, OVH, to reflect its new ownership structure and the commitment of its new shareholders.
OVH Energy will hold interests in Oando Marketing Limited, Oando Supply & Trading Limited, Apapa SPM Limited, and Oando Trippmart Limited.
Oando Plc will retain a 49 percent shareholding in the newly-formed corporate vehicle, with the HVI consortium also owning 49 percent. A residual two percent will be owned by a local entity.
Oando Downstream is comprised of Oando Marketing Plc, a petroleum product retailing and distribution company with over 350 retail outlets and strategically located terminals in Nigeria, Ghana and Togo; Oando Supply & Trading Limited, a leading indigenous physical trader of petroleum products in the sub-Saharan region, supplying and trading crude oil and refined petroleum products and Oando Trading Limited, an entity involved in the trading of crude oil and refined petroleum products in international markets.
It also has in its fold Apapa SPM Limited, a marina jetty and subsea pipeline system capable of berthing large vessels that will increase the delivery capacity and offloading efficiency of petroleum products into major petroleum marketers’ storage facilities at Apapa, Lagos; and Ebony Oil & Gas Limited, a Ghanaian supply and trading entity with a provisional bulk distribution company license supplying white products.
