Ardova Plc is on the cusp of going private, a statement by its directors’ board showed on Monday, roughly forty-five years after the company listed in Lagos.
Mr Sowami holds 74.1 per cent of Ardova’s issued shares and is looking to acquire the rest 25.9 per cent equivalent to 970.7 million units currently in the hands of the investing public. The energy firm was at various points in the past known as British Petroleum Nigeria, African Petroleum and Forte Oil. It was incorporated in 1964 as the local unit of British Petroleum but became indigenised twelve years after when 60 per cent of its shares were purchased by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the rest by the Nigerian public. It was christened African Petroleum Limited in 1978.
That no other director holds Ardova’s shares eases the path for Mr Sowami’s bid to take the company private even though it must scale regulators’ hurdles apart from getting shareholders to give up their stakes.