Billionaire oil merchant, Mr. Femi Otedola, on Wednesday, announced that he had completely divested his interests in Forte Oil.
Otedola, who disclosed this through his verified Instagram handle, said he had moved on from being a player in the petroleum industry to focusing on his 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.
“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 wrote.
Earlier, he had announced the sale of his 75 per cent direct and indirect shareholdings in the oil company.
A disclosure notice sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) had said that he reached an agreement with another energy firm, Prudent Energy, which is investing through Ignite Investments and Commodities Limited.
“Otedola’s divestment from the downstream business is pursuant to his decision to explore and maximise business opportunities in refining and petrochemicals,” a disclosure sent to the Nigerian bourse said.
