Nigeria’s Stock Exchange Loses Three Oil Firms in Four Years
The ranks of listed oil and gas companies in Nigeria have shrunk by a quarter since 2021 as three operators in the downstream sector quit the stock exchange.
Of the 142 companies on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Monday, only six are from an industry that has been the lifeblood of the economy for decades: Seplat Energy, Oando, Aradel, TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeria, Conoil and Eterna. Aradel, formerly Niger Delta Exploration & Production, went public in October last year.
MRS Oil Nigeria, a fuel marketing company listed 55 years ago, exited the NGX on July 28.
The company, largely owned by Sayyu Dantata, announced in March that it had concluded arrangements for the voluntary delisting of all its issued shares from the NGX and subsequent admission to the NASD OTC Securities Exchange.
Formerly known as Texaco Nigeria Limited, it was listed on the stock exchange on January 1, 1970.
READ MORE: MRS Oil Nigeria Leaves Stock Exchange 55 Years After Listing
MRS Oil’s delisting came two years after Ardova (formerly Forte Oil), which went public in 2010, left the NGX.
On February 6, 2023, Ardova notified the bourse that Ignite Investments & Commodities Limited has approached its board of directors with the intention to acquire the shares held by other shareholders of the company and subsequently delist the company from the NGX.
Ignite Investments and Commodities Limited had in June 2019 become the majority shareholder in Forte Oil after the former majority shareholder, Femi Otedola, disposed of his shares in the company. The company’s name was changed to Ardova in January 2020.
READ MORE: Ardova to acquire 100% stake in Enyo
On May 7, 2021, 11Plc, formerly Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, delisted its shares from the stock market after 43 years following a resolution by its shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting on October 14, 2020.
The United States-based ExxonMobil sold its 60 percent stake in Mobil Oil Nigeria in 2017 to NIPCO Investment Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NIPCO Plc. It was later renamed 11Plc.
