Major shareholders of Oando plc — Nigeria’s largest indigenous oil company — are engaged in a major battle for control. On one side there are the founding Oando shareholders Adewale Tinubu — the CEO and one of the major Oando shareholders, with 33% — and Omamofe Boyo (12%). On the other side are Dahiru Mangal — a wealthy philanthropist with strong political connections — and the Italian born Nigerian businessman, Gabriele Volpi, who has significant commercial interests in the country.

Mangal and Volpi bought a US$200 million stake in Oando’s Ocean and Oil Ltd parent company, this gave them the ability to purchase ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian assets in 2013, in a deal worth US$1.79 billion. This was initiated and completed at the height of the oil boom and has thus become a huge restriction on Oando’s performance since the collapse of international crude oil prices. The bone of contention is the appropriate ownership stake that Mangal and Volpi are now entitled to.

In a petition sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Mangal and Volpi are claiming that they have been short changed by the founding Oando shareholders. They argue that they were allocated a lower than agreed equity stake in Oando when they helped finance the ConocoPhillips deal.

The founding Oando shareholders allege that Mangal and Volpi are desperate to hijack the company from them, insinuating that their claims are unsubstantiated. The Oando Shareholders are also accusing Mangal and Volpi of deliberately driving down the price of Oando shares by leaking their petition to the media, while simultaneously taking advantage of the lower prices to accumulate more of the company’s shares. Menas Associates has discovered that Oando has already filed an arbitration case in the UK over the dispute.

The SEC is yet to issue an official statement on its investigations into the allegations and counter allegations. However, Oando released a statement, on 6 September, quoting the SEC as saying that it is ‘unable to identify any material findings’ in the allegations made by Mangal and Volpi, and therefore permitted Oando to proceed with its 40th Annual General Meeting, which was scheduled for 11 September.

The battle for the control of Oando is expected to drag on for some time considering the high-level officials engaged. The founding shareholders currently have the political edge because Wale Tinubu provided significant financial support to the APC party when it defeated the ruling PDP in the 2015 general elections.

On the other hand, Volpi is a business partner to Atiku Abubakar who is now challenging the Buhari Administration, and Mangal has deep roots in the PDP having been a major financier of the party in the past.

Considering this political polarisation, the final outcome is likely to be determined in the UK or other overseas courts because Ocean and Oil is registered outside Nigeria.

This article was taken from the most recent edition of Nigeria Politics & Security 11.09.17