Lagos — More details have emerged on Femi Otedola’s sale of his majority shareholding in Forte Oil. SweetcrudeReports learnt that not two, but seven directors of the company had resigned following the development.
An earlier report said just two; the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Akin Akinfenwa, and Chief Finance Officer, Mr. Julius Omodayo-Owotuga resigned.
However, findings showed that seven of them; Mr. Akin Akinfenwa, Mr. Julius Omodayo-Owotuga, Mr. Christopher Adeyemi, Mr. Anil Dua, Mrs. Suleiman Salamatu, Dr. Mairo Mandara, Mr. Nicolas Vervelda, had tendered their resignation letters after Mr. Otedola sold his shares.
Last Wednesday, Otedola through his verified Instagram handle, announced the sale of Forte Oil.
Explaining the reason behind the move, he said he has 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.
Sources close to the matter hinted SweetcrudeReports, that the directors, after Mr. Otedola took the decision to sell Forte Oil, no longer felt comfortable hanging on, as their positions were being threatened by the change in ownership.
“There was no point hanging on any longer. There’s a new owner, and he would have his own team to work with. So the honourable thing to do was to resign,” a source had told SweetcrudeReports.
However, this newspaper also learned some of them would be joining Otedola in his new power company.
Otedola’s 74.02 percent shares were acquired by Ignite Investment and Commodities Limited led by Prudent Energy Services Limited. The acquisition has been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC.
Ignite will now take a controlling stake on Forte Oil Plc’s downstream business.
The new owner will retain the name, Forte Oil.
New directors appointed
The new owner has now appointed Mr. Olumide Adeosun and Mr. Moshood Olajide as the new CEO and CFO respectively.
Other newly appointees as directors include; Alhaji Abdulwasiu Sowami, Alhaji Aminu Umar, Mr. Olusola Adeeyo, and Mrs. Durosimi-Etti Aniola.
Their appointments take effect immediately, as the new Board will hold the inaugural Board of Directors meeting today.
