Forte Oil Nigeria Sales 17% Stake to Mercuria For US$200 Million

Lagos, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa —- One of Nigeria’s integrated energy solution providers, Forte Oil Plc, confirmed the acquisition of 17 percent of its equity by Mercuria Energy Holdings SA for $200 million. With the foreign direct investment in Forte Oil, the world’s third largest independent energy trader and asset operator has made inroads into the West African energy sector.

Forte Oil said in a press release that through this investment, it had secured additional working capital to continue its meteoric growth and dominance in the downstream sector, upstream services, power generation and upstream exploration in its bid to becoming Nigeria’s premier integrated energy solution provider.

“Mercuria is joining forces with Forte Oil at an auspicious time when equitable funding and expertise is needed to expand and intensify its market penetration to give the company the leverage to further create a positive impact for all shareholders. “This is another step towards projecting Forte Oil Plc as the investment of choice as reflected in our mission statement,” the statement reads.

Furthermore, the statement stipulated that the deal has been approved by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), adding that it is geared towards improving the group’s working capital and would be used for the expansion of the downstream and power generation businesses in Nigeria as well as positioning itself for future opportunities in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.

Forte Oil is Africa’s largest oil marketing company by retail network and market capitalization. The company has more than 500 owned and dealer-assisted gas stations spread across the country. The company also owns oil storage depots and has investments in power generation.

Mercuria Energy Group Holdings SA was founded in 2004 by Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi, former executives at Phibro—the commodities trader sold by Citigroup to Occidental Petroleum in 2009—and previously at Goldman Sachs. Until 2007, Mercuria was called the J&S Group and focused mostly on oil trading.