Forte Oil sale: Ignite takes over shares Friday

*A Forte Oil Plc service station.

OpeOluwani Akintayo

Lagos — Ignite Investments & Commodities Limited will officially take over Forte Oil Plc’s shares on Friday, documents sited by SweetcrudeReports has shown.

An official notification document By Forte Oil to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE on Wednesday, said the move to finally take over the shares by Ignite has already been issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC.

Following the sale of the oil and gas firm by Forte Oil’s Chairman, Femi Otedola, Ignite will take over 500, 000 ordinary shares, and according to the document, shareholders have been notified of the offer to buy at N66.25 per share.

The arrangement had suffered a hiccup early last month after Ignite withdrew its proposal to take over the shares until “things have been cleared up” by regulatory officials, SEC and NSE, according to findings.

This was immediately followed by a memo by Forte Oil to the Nigerian Bourse, a copy obtained by SweetcrudeReports, informing its shareholders to hold on further actions regarding their shares. The memo was signed by the firm’s Secretary, Oladeinde Nelson-Cole.

According to the memo, shareholders were to hold on because the proposal by Ignite Investments and Commodities Limited is still “under review” by relevant regulators and has not been formally launched.

“As such, shareholders are advised to take no action in respect of the proposed offer at this time. Shareholders will be appropriately notified in line with regulatory requirements by Ignite Investments of the formal launch date,” it said.

Forte Oil’s offer at N66.25 through tender means shareholders will tender and accept a percentage to cover the 500,000 units no matter the number of units tendered.

Ignite had earlier a purchased majority stake in Forte Oil.

Mr. Femi Otedola, in June, announced that he was transferring his shares to Ignite to focus on other projects, one of which is his power generation business, Geregu Power Plc.

Forte Oil has since announced a new board of directors- AbdulWasiu Sowami – Chairman, Olusola Adeeyo (Non-Executive Director), Durosinmi-Etti Aniola (Non-Executive director), Aminu Umar (Non-Executive Director), Olumide Adeosun (Chief Executive Officer), and Moshood Olajide (Chief Financial Officer), to replace Femi Otedola, Akin Akinfemiwa, Julius Omodayo-Owotuga, Christopher Adeyemi, Mrs. Suleiman Salamatu, Dr. Mairo Mandara and Nicolas Vervelde.