Company Plans To Raise $170 Million by Year-End to Boost Production

Nigerian oil and gas production company Lekoil Ltd. is contemplating a listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as it boosts output by more than threefold over the next three years, Chief Executive Officer Lekan Akinyanmi said.

The energy firm, which trades on the London exchange, is “seriously considering” offering shares in Nigeria, Akinyanmi said in an interview in Lagos, the country’s commercial hub. It is looking to appoint advisers “in the next 12 to 18 months’’ and will probably list by 2022, he said.

Standard Chartered Plc is leading a consortium that will raise $170 million by the end of the year to fund infrastructure development. That will see output at Lekoil’s Otakikpo joint venture in Nigeria’s Niger delta region rise to as much as 20,000 barrels a day “over the next two to three years,’’ from 5,800 barrels, Akinyanmi said.

The company would join Johannesburg-based MTN Group Ltd., Africa’s biggest wireless carrier that listed in May, and Airtel Africa Plc, which started trading in Lagos Tuesday. They have been lured by the gradual recovery in the economy, which vies with South Africa as the continent’s biggest, since a recession in 2016. The International Monetary Fund forecasts 2.1% expansion in gross domestic product this year, up from 1.9% in 2018.

Besides broadening its access to funding, a local listing would also tap demand from investors “that are on ground and can see the current realities and also understand the dynamics” of investing in the country, Akinyanmi said.

Lekoil is also looking to acquire marginal fields to boost its operations in the West African nation. “We have always been lining up for the marginal-field bid rounds; hopefully at some point the government will actually pull the trigger’’ on bidding, he said.

By Margaret Nongo-Okojokwu, With Agency Reports