Forte Oil plans to raise ₦20 billion capital by equity

Forte Oil Plc has disclosed plans to raise ₦20 billion capital by way of equity out of the ₦100 billion approved by the shareholders at its Annual General Meeting, AGM, to boost its operations.

Executive Director and Group Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Julius Omodayo-Owotuga, who disclosed this to newsmen in Lagos said, “We have commenced preparation to raise additional capital as we see opportunities, we continue to explore them and raise money in tranches.

“There are a lot of foreign interests in our company. So when the Foreign Exchange problem started it affected us as most of them offloaded our shares and the market price was affected, but since the Nigeria Autonomous Foreign Exchange, NAFEX came on board, there has been rally on our shares gradually.

“Our last fund raising was very successful. We raised N9 billion by way of corporate bond. This series provided us with the necessary liquidity to actualise our growth strategies and positioned the company for the years ahead.

– Growth strategies –

“The pricing of the debt instrument demonstrates the markets’ belief in us and the pricing has helped us to reduce our borrowing cost.”

He stressed that the equity capital will help it to boost its working capital and operations, adding, “We have diversified our operations. We have 51 per cent stake in a 414 MW gas-fired independent power plant located in central Nigeria, selling power to the Nigerian power grid on a guaranteed basis.

“Forte Oil maintained its 14 per cent market share amongst the major marketers in the White Products segment of the downstream sector as a result of ongoing strategic retail network expansion and growth of our commercial and lubricant customer base despite market difficulties.”

Omodayo-Owotuga said “We have five pillars strategies going forward. We want to concentrate on high margin products. We want to focus on lubricants. We have been working on our LPG as we improve our facility in Abuja, Kano and Apapa. We want to strengthen our balance sheet. We want long term capital so that interest expenses will come down. Diversification is part of our strategy to boost out revenue base. We want to buy upstream assets; we will focus on mergers and acquisition within the space available. We have been growing our market share organically. We are looking t opportunity to grow the retail outlet through inorganic strategy.”

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