Sowami had through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) -Ignite
Investment and Commercial Limited (IICL) in 2020, acquired the company.
According to a report
by THISDAY, Sowami had instituted arbitration proceedings seeking to
avoid the payment of the balance of $20 million due to Otedola following his
acquisition of Ardova in 2020.
“The arbitration ruled in favour of Otedola with the award
of $19 million against Sowami.”
“The good news is that following several payments in
installments, Mr. Wasiu has completed the payment of the arbitrary award, net
of certain deductions ahead of the June 2023 deadline. The total payment of the
balance is, in the sum of $19million approximately, thus completing the
acquisition,” a report said.
Ignite Investments and Commercial Limited in the 2021
financial year of Ardova had 970,666,694 shares with 74.06 per cent Holding.
The company in its unaudited financial year ended December
31, 2022 declared N7.61 billion loss as against N3.85billion loss reported in
2021 financial year amid hike in cost of sales and finance costs.
Ardova reported N5.05 billion finance cost in 2022, an
increase of 41 per cent from N3.58billion in 2021FY, while cost of sales hits
N226.9billion in 2022 unaudited, a growth of 18.4 per cent from N191.59billion
reported in 2021.
Ardova, formerly Forte Plc, a company Otedola successfully
turned around through, strong leadership, immense value accretion by
consistently increasing her market capital, shareholder’s funds and dividend
payment in folds for over decade
It was this value accretion that made Ardova market leader,
pre and post-acquisition.
Otedola was however delighted that Ardova has maintained her
market position post acquisition and now undoubtedly Nigeria’s largest
downstream petroleum marketing company.
0 comments:
Post a Comment