Our focus is now on completing NAOC acquisition – Oando boss
Wale Tinubu, group chief executive of Oando Plc, has said the indigenous energy group is now focused on completing the acquisition of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited (NAOC) that was announced 10 months ago.
Tinubu said this while commenting on the company’s unaudited results for the 2023 financial year that was released on Friday.
“Despite the persistent pipeline vandalism across the Niger Delta, which continues to dampen crude production, we achieved a profit after tax of N74.7 billion in 2023 largely driven by increased trading volumes due to our strategic global partnerships and net foreign exchange gains on the group’s foreign currency denominated assets as against losses on our foreign currency denominated liabilities,” he said.
He said the signing of the sale and purchase agreement with Italian energy major Eni towards the acquisition of 100% of the shares of NAOC Ltd, marked “a pivotal moment for our organization and is poised to unlock substantial synergies in the near future”.
“Our focus is now on completing the acquisition and seamlessly integrating operations to deliver exceptional value to our shareholders,” Tinubu said.
Oando said its revenue for the period increased by 71% to N3.4 trillion owing to significant increase in trading activity and exchange rate translations, despite lower oil, gas and national gas liquids production volumes and realised prices.
It said administrative expenses increased because of the exchange losses occasioned by the impact of naira devaluation on its foreign currency denominated liabilities.
The group saw a 35% increase in net finance costs due to an increase in interest rates on several of its major facilities in line with increases in global interest rates.
Its capital expenditures related to the development of oil and gas assets and exploration and evaluation activities fell to $52.9 million from $101.9 million in 2022.
