Forte Oil, an indigenous downstream oil major said it will raise 20 billion via a share sale to institutional and high net worth investors.
The total sum is approximately USD66 million using real time Forex exchange conversion.
Forte said it will carry out the sale via a public offer for shares through a book building process to help price discovery. It has applied to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Nigerian Stock Exchange for approval.
Forte said its core investor, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, owned by billionaire Femi Otedola, with a total stake of 78.08 percent in the company, will not participate in the offer.
The new share sale is part of its fundraising drive to stabilise its business in the face of Nigeria’s worst recession in the last 20 years. Earlier this year, the company floated a NGN9 billion bond on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. It could be recalled the Forte Oil had floated a NGN50 billion debt instrument last year.
In its first quarter result, Forte Oil reported NGN33.0 as gross revenue compared to NGN35.6 billion recorded in the first quarter of the financial year 2016.
