By Emeka Okoroanyanwu
Following the sale of Femi Otedola’s majority shareholding in Forte Oil, seven directors of the company have left the organisation.
The seven are Mr. Akin Akinfenwa, Mr. Julius Omodayo-Owotuga, Mr. Christopher Adeyemi, Mr. Anil Dua, Mrs. Suleiman Salamatu, Dr. Mairo Mandara, Mr. Nicolas Vervelda. They had tendered their resignation letters after Mr. Otedola sold his shares.
Explaining the reason for the sale of his majority shareholding in Forte Oil, Otedola 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”.
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“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.
It was learnt that after Mr. Otedola took the decision to sell Forte Oil, the directors 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.
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.
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.
