Tony Elumelu’s Heirs Energies buys 6 million shares in Seplat Energy for £53.2m

Heirs Energies Ltd, owned by Tony Elumelu, has bought 6 million ordinary shares in Seplat Energy Plc for £53.2 million.

Seplat Energy announced this share purchase in a regulatory filing signed by Edith Onwuchekwa, the company’s Director and Company Secretary, on Thursday.

Seplat is listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).

Tony Elumelu, who is also a Non-Executive Director at Seplat Energy, bought the shares at £8.87 each. This amount is about one percent of the total shares the company has.

After this deal, Heirs Energies Limited now owns 27,943,867 shares in Seplat, which is about 4.67 percent of the company. The companies owned by Elumelu, which include Heirs Energies Limited and Heirs Holdings Limited, together hold 126,400,000 shares.

Elumelu’s total shares in Seplat give him a voting interest of 21.07 percent based on the company’s issued shares of 599,944,561.

Last year, Heirs Energies bought the entire 20.07 percent stake, which is 120.4 million shares, that was previously owned by Maurel & Prom S.A., for around $500 million.

On January 14, Seplat Energy provided more details about the transactions. They clarified that the 20.07 percent interest is now with two controlling entities: Heirs Energies Limited holds 3.658 percent and Heirs Holdings Limited holds 16.412 percent.

For proxy voting, Seplat Energy named Samuel Nwanze as the proxy holder for Heirs Energies’ 3.658 percent stake. He will keep the voting rights until further notice.

Emmanuel Nnorom is the proxy holder for Heirs Holdings’ 16.412 percent stake, and he also keeps the rights until further notice.

Heirs Energies runs Oil Mining Lease (OML) 17 in the Niger Delta. The lease produces 50,000 barrels of oil and 120 million cubic feet of gas daily.

The company states that OML 17 has reserves of more than 1.5 billion barrels of oil and 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas. It also supplies fuel for over 400 megawatts of electricity generation in Nigeria.

Seplat Energy Plc is a Nigerian independent company focused on exploring and producing oil and gas, mainly in the Niger Delta.