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Oando awaits approval for $1.55bn ConocoPhillips acquisition

By BusinessNews Staff on February 4, 2014

Oando Plc, an indigenous energy group listed on both the Nigerian and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges, says it has met all the financial considerations for the acquisition of the $1.55bn ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian assets.

The company, in a statement on Sunday, said it was waiting for the approval of the Federal Government through the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, for the deal to be concluded.

The Group Chief Executive, Oando Plc, Mr. Wale Tinubu, said, “We are immensely pleased to have secured all funding to complete our acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian assets. We are tremendously excited about the future of our organisation as this acquisition will not only provide significant growth in size and scale; but will substantially strengthen our position in the upstream sector.”

The Oando boss said though the company had duly completed all financial commitments regarding the acquisition, the closing of the ConocoPhillips acquisition remained subject to the satisfaction of the closing conditions, including approval from the minister.

He explained that ConocoPhillips had already submitted an application to the minister in that regard.

The statement said, “In the light of this regulatory requirement, Oando Energy Resources has entered into an amendment agreement with ConocoPhillips to extend the outside date for the completion of the ConocoPhillips acquisition from January 31, 2014 to February 28, 2014.

“Pursuant to this agreement, the OER will pay an additional deposit of $50m. Accordingly, the total deposit for the ConocoPhillips acquisition will now amount to $500m.”

In December 2012, Oando Plc, through its subsidiary, Oando Energy Resources, entered into an agreement with ConocoPhillips to acquire the latter’s Nigerian businesses for a total cash consideration of $1.55bn.

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