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Savannah Acquisition in Jeopardy as Lekoil Shareholder files Winding up Petition

By Sandra Ani

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Lekoil Nigeria
Lekoil Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lekoil Nigeria Limited, Mr. Olalekan Akinyanmi

Lekoil Nigeria Limited has filed a petition in the Grand Court of Cayman Island Court to request the just and equitable winding up of Lekoil Cayman to avert value loss by shareholders of the AIM-Listed company.

Lekan Akinyanmi, Lekoil

Lekoil Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lekoil Nigeria Limited, Mr. Olalekan Akinyanmi

The petition was filed by Lekoil Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lekoil Nigeria Limited, Mr. Olalekan Akinyanmi.

This new turn of events was disclosed by the Chairman of Lekoil Nigeria  Limited, Mrs. Aisha Muhammed-Oyebode in a letter she wrote to shareholders of Lekoil Cayman.

Mrs. Oyebode called shareholders attention to the petition presented by the chief executive officer of Lekoil Nigeria Limited to wind up Lekoil Limited (the Company).

She said: “I write to you today to alleviate any concerns that you may have regarding this petition and assure you that that it is not the intention of Mr. Akinyanmi nor Lekoil Nigeria to compromise the integrity of your investment in the Company.

You may recall that I wrote to you in December 2020 following the requisition of an extraordinary general meeting by Metallon Corporation.

 In my letter I foreshadowed the efforts to take over your Company by the back door by Metallon Corporation and various other activist institutional shareholders, without making a formal offer for your shares as required by the Company’s articles of association, and without offering fair value for your company”.

The Lekoil chairperson added that  recent events have proved her predictions correct as the board of directors of the Company (the Board) have entered into agreements with Savannah Energy Investments Limited (Savannah), a wholly owned subsidiary of Savannah PLC, in an attempt to hand over control of and the entire assets of the Company have effectively been handed over to Savannah for £855,000 funding under a convertible funding agreement and US$1,000,000 funding under an option agreement. We believe the assets of the Company are conservatively worth in excess of US$500 million, with the producing asset of the Company’s Otakikpo asset alone is conservatively valued at US$200 million.

Explaining further, Mrs Oyebode said that “ in the absence of any substantial operations, the funding raised from Savannah will be applied to pay the fees of the directors and other advisers such as SP Angel and Tennyson Securities. Shareholders are unlikely to receive a penny of the funds raised by the Company, nor will they be invested in the underlying assets of the Company. The Board further announced on 1 April 2022, the fees to be paid to the directors of the Company for the current year (amounting to approximately US$290,000) and an intention to further dilute your shareholding (potentially by a further 20%, following on from the approximate 40% dilution that you have already suffered this year) through the issuance of shares pursuant to a contractor services arrangement”.

Lekoil Nigeria, according to her, has only ever sought to protect the interest of shareholders and create long term value for shareholders. Lekoil Nigeria has been committed to developing its assets and increasing production from its producing asset, Otakikpo.

Lekoil Nigeria

It will be recalled that consistent with its efforts to protect the interests of shareholders, in December 2021 Lekoil Nigeria announced a cash offer to acquire shares of shareholders wishing to exit their investment at 1.9p and a share exchange offer for those shareholders wishing to continue in their investment in the Lekoil group. The Board however took steps to ensure that these offers could not be easily accepted by shareholders. Instead, the Board resolved to issue new shares to Savannah at 25% of the price offered for your shares by Lekoil Nigeria pursuant to the cash offer and effectively agreed to hand over the entire assets of Lekoil Nigeria Limited to Savannah for US$1,000,000 under the terms of the Option Agreement

that you are being asked to approve at the extraordinary general meeting scheduled for 7 April 2022 (whilst proposing to pay themselves approximately $300,000 per annum).

The Lekoil Nigeria chairperson further disclosed Lekoil Nigeria considers that the Board of Lekoil Cayman has knowingly entered into financing arrangements that will lead to a significant diminution in the value of your investment. This has been done intentionally and is the culmination of a takeover attempt orchestrated initially with Metallon Corporation and now being implemented with Savannah.

Explaining further, she said  that “ In the circumstances, the chief executive officer, Mr. Olalekan Akinyanmi (who is the single largest non-institutional shareholder and the founder of the Company), had no choice but to petition the Grand Court of Cayman Islands (where the Company is incorporated) for a just and equitable winding up of the Company, on the grounds of the oppressive conduct of the Board, whilst at the same time seeking to set aside the agreements entered into with Savannah and the unauthorised issue of shares to Savannah and other parties.

“Shareholders should not however be alarmed. Mr. Olalekan Akinyanmi is seeking to ensure that shareholders that placed their trust in himself and the Company do not lose their investment as a consequence of the de facto takeover of the Company that the Board has concluded with Savannah. The petition together with the efforts to set aside of the transactions with Savannah are intended to ensure that the interest of shareholders are fully protected.

Shareholders should understand that the steps that have been taken by Mr. Akinyanmi, the founder of the Company, are intended to protect your interest. It is time now to place your faith in the right party”, she said.

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Energy

AVEVA Appoints Joanna Mainguy as New Sustainability Accelerator Director

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Joanna AVEVA
Joanna Mainguy, Sustainability Accelerator Director at AVEVA
  • Joanna Mainguy will steer strategies for sustainability innovation across AVEVA’s portfolio and partner ecosystem, furthering ESG targets for 2025 and beyond

AVEVA, a global leader in industrial software, driving digital transformation and sustainability, today announced the appointment of Joanna Mainguy as Sustainability Accelerator Director.

Joanna’s appointment testifies to AVEVA’s dedication to strengthening the company’s sustainability impact in line with advancing global climate commitments. 

As Sustainability Accelerator Director, Joanna Mainguy will focus exclusively on sustainability solutions and strategies to accelerate innovation that will help AVEVA’s customers to achieve their net-zero targets.

She will look at how AVEVA leverages current market and customer analysis to inform its in-house development team, advise on new customer collaborations and on how AVEVA should grow its partnership network and M&A pipeline to reflect its sustainability priorities.

Joanna will lead the implementation of a sustainability solutions plan tailored to meet the most pressing needs of AVEVA’s industrial customers on low-carbon transition, circularity and resilience, via an integrated product, marketing and sales approach. She will work closely with AVEVA’s portfolio, business area and R&D leads to continue to develop new sustainability capabilities and drive collaboration on go-to-market initiatives that support industry with contributing to an accelerated energy transition and shift to a circular economy.

Joanna was formerly Industry Director, EMEA, for Energy & Sustainability at Microsoft, where she led strategic engagements with major energy providers and supported the energy transition with digital solutions. She has worked across the entire energy value chain and has more than 15 years of experience in process industries and the energy sector, including work for major system integrators, software and energy companies.

Lisa Wee, Global Head of Sustainability, AVEVA, said: “We are excited to welcome Joanna to AVEVA. She will bolster our mission to enable faster uptake of existing sustainability solutions across the industrial landscape, while in parallel we continue to invest in product capabilities and partnerships that will push out the frontiers of sustainability innovation for industry. At AVEVA we look to lead by example on sustainability and we achieved a 93% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions last year. We aspire to help our customers better leverage digital solutions to realize their own ambitious sustainability targets early, and Joanna brings a wealth of experience to help support this.”

Commenting on her appointment, Joanna Mainguy, Sustainability Accelerator Director, AVEVA, said: “I am delighted to join AVEVA at such a pivotal time in its sustainability innovation and growth trajectory. I look forward to working with AVEVA teams and customers to continue to grow the sustainability benefits that can be achieved with AVEVA software. I am also keen to work closely with our partners to drive further positive change at scale, since we know addressing the climate crisis will continue to require expanded collaboration”.

AVEVA actively embeds sustainability into its core product strategy with specific capabilities in its software portfolio.

AVEVA’s software enables organizations to connect and contextualize key sustainability data with artificial intelligence and human insight, enhancing their agility, resilience and sustainability in order to help drive responsible use of the world’s resources.

AVEVA’s 2023 Sustainability Progress Report reveals significant progress across all three pillars of the company’s sustainability framework, encompassing product strategy, operations and culture. 

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Energy

Climate Change: NNPC Ltd/Total Energies JV Achieves Zero Gas Flare

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nnpc

In pursuit of meeting the targets of 20% (unconditional) and 47% (conditional) greenhouse gas emission reduction as contained in the Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Accord signed by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, the NNPC Ltd/TotalEnergies Joint Venture has achieved zero routine gas flare in all its assets.

According to a statement signed by Olufemi Soneye, Chief Corporate Communications Officer, NNPC Ltd., this feat was announced on Thursday during an inspection tour of OML 100 in South-eastern Niger Delta, off Port Harcourt, by a joint NNPC Ltd and TotalEnergies Team to ascertain the success of the OML Flare Reduction Project launched in December 2023.  

The NNPC Ltd/TotalEnergies Joint Venture, which is the concession holder of four leases, had hitherto achieved zero routine flaring across OML 99 (2006), OML 102 (2014), and OML 58 (2016), leaving OML 100 as the only lease with routine flaring going on.

The significance of this achievement is that the last routine flare volume of about 12MMscf/d (twelve million standard cubic feet per day) of gas has now been eliminated giving rise to a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of about 341KtCO₂e/yr.

The achievement is an outcome of a programme introduced by the NNPC Ltd to galvanize action towards achieving the zero routine flare by 2030 across its portfolio of assets.

It is also a testament to NNPC Ltd’s prioritization of sustainability anchored on the ‘first R’ of its 5R Strategy (Reduce, Replace, Renew, Re-plant, Repurpose), as it strives to reduce its carbon footprint.

Work is ongoing across all other assets within NNPC Ltd’s Upstream Directorate to ensure that all assets achieve zero routine flaring by 2030 or earlier.

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Energy

NNPC Celebrates 14,000bpd Production from Akpo West Field

By SANDRA ANI

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In line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) to optimise production from the nation’s oil and gas assets, the Company has announced the successful commencement of oil production from the Akpo West Field.

The milestone, which is the result of meticulous planning, strategic collaboration, and unwavering dedication from all stakeholders involved in the project, will add 14,000 barrels per day condensate to the nation’s production. This will be followed up by the production of about 4million cubic meters of gas per day by 2028.

The development of Akpo West which is on Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) 2 (formerly OML 130) leverages the existing Akpo Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility via a subsea tie-back to keep costs low and minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

The milestone was enabled by the strategic leadership of the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Mr. Mele Kyari, and the Upstream Directorate of the NNPC Ltd whose support played no small role in propelling the operators to actualise the short- and mid-term hydrocarbon production goal of the President Tinubu administration.

Located 135 kilometres offshore, Akpo West is one of the discoveries on PML 2 with proximity to the Akpo main which started up in 2009 and produced 124,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2023.

PML 2 is operated by TotalEnergies with a 24% interest, in partnership with CNOOC (45%), Sapetro (15%), Prime 130 (16%), and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd as the concessionaire of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC).

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