OLA KING

For Wale Tinubu, the head honcho of leading Oil and Gas company, Oando Plc, getting positive result that will position Oando as a world class brand to reckon with remains his top priority. Despite the recent face off with Security Exchange Commission, SEC, the oil magnate had remained unruffled and unperturbed. He is hellbent on proving naysayers wrong that; he knows the Oil and Gas business like the back of his hands.

The very brilliant businessman is proving to the world that he is definitely a master in the art of making money.

To say that the Lagos State born is a big player in the oil and gas industry is stating the obvious, in fact, he has emerged a glittering
star in the business firmament. The trained lawyer plies his trade in such a way that makes many of his competitors green with envy. Indeed, he enjoys uncommon grace so much that he now sits atop a multi-billion naira conglomerate with various subsidiaries in oil & gas, properties and so many other businesses scattered around the world.

It’s no longer a hidden fact that the Oando boss, had always displayed his unrivalled wizardry and Midas touch with his wealth of experience in business. This has helped him weathered all typhoon storm surfacing.
Wale Tinubu is still standing tall like the proverbial iroko tree.

Away from the recent faceoff between the Security Exchange Commission, SEC and Oando; the czar and his team had yet again proved their worth by keeping Oando afloat and also put smiles on the face of investors by
recording a revenue of N315.4 billion for the half year ended June 30, 2019, showing an increase of six per cent from N297.3 billion in the corresponding period of 2018. Oando ended the period with a profit-after-tax of N7.168 billion, down from N8.5 billion in 2018.

As gathered the trained lawyer’s watch, had also continued to reduce its total borrowings after its acquisition of ConocoPhillips Nigeria in 2014, following a proactive drive to significantly reduce its debt and liabilities.

According to information gathered, the total borrowings reduced drastically for the period by five per cent to N200.7 billion at the end
of June 30, 2019, from N210.9 billion at the end of 2018, indicating a 58 per cent reduction in debt since 2014 from N473.3 billion.

With this growth as revealed by a source, the man has been described as a champion extraordinaire whose magic wand is forever potent even when least expected.

Wale Tinubu’s success may not come as a surprise to those close to him
because he has over the years, shown evidence that he’s well versed in
oil and gas business; and like a business cognoscente, he knows when to
throw the dice and even reinvent in a shaky business environment. The
words of a former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill; “The
empires of the future are empires of the mind” gives credence to Tinubu’s evident ability to successfully overcome challenges.

The story started 25 years ago, precisely December 1994, from a relatively small and unknown company, Ocean and Oil Services Limited with his friends, Omamofe Boyo and Onajite Okoloko to supply diesel and
Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) to various industries, shipping firms and exploration.

Tinubu has grown into perhaps one of the biggest players in world oil business. To those with discerning minds, his success, whichranks him as not one of your run-off-the-mill businessmen, is rooted in his uncommon brilliance and business acumen.

Interestingly, more than two decades after they sowed in pains, the investment has grown, before their eyes, to become a multinational
conglomerate worth millions of dollars spread across five West Africancountries. At the outset, they bought their first vessel, MT Carolina, in the mid-90s to supply diesel to off-shore companies from the Port-Harcourt Refinery.

Within seven years, the fleet had grown to seven ships; and by 2000, when the government wanted to sell its controlling stake in the defunct Unipetrol Plc, a downstream oil marketing company, they bid for it. When
the former Managing Director of the old Unipetrol Plc at that time, Mallam Yusuf Ali was a seasoned technocrat who once served in the NNPC received word that Ocean and Oil Services had made a bid for his oil firm, he laughed them to scorn and waved it off as a bad joke, because Unipetrol at that time was already a top quoted company on the Lagos
Stock Exchange, while Ocean and Oil was just an upstart trying to find its feet in the downstream sector. His former aides recall that the bid reminded them of a tilapia fish trying to swallow up a whole whale! To
their surprise, Ocean and Oil Services successfully paid for the shares
and took over the company, with the help of its foreign technical partners, Compagnia Espanola De Petroleos (CEPSA), the second largestoil group in Spain.

Two years later Tinubu led the largest ever acquisition of a quoted Nigerian company, with the purchase of Agip by Unipetrol. The group was rebranded as Oando PLC and has grown to become the leading oil and gas retailer in Nigeria, ensuring one in five cars on Nigerian roads drive on its fuels.

By 2005, Oando Plc became the first African company to secure a cross-border listing on the Johannesburg stock of exchange (JSE) in
South Africa and in the same year Oando Energy Services wasincorporated.

In 2010, Oando through its subsidiary Oando Gas and Power built thefirst 12.5MW IPP Power plant for Lagos State government and in 2011,Tinubu concluded a $3billion gas facility contract with the Federal Government. Two years later, he led the listing of the company’s
upstream subsidiary, Oando Energy Resources on the Toronto StockExchange (TSX).

In 2014, we witnessed the close of his best transaction yet, the acquisition of ConocoPhillips Nigeria businesses for $1.5 billion fortifying Oando’s position as the largest indigenous independent oil
& gas producer in Nigeria with a current net production of 53,145 boepd
(Barrels of Oil Equivalent per Day) and 230.6 mmboe (Million Barrels of Oil Equivalent) of 2p reserves and 536.8 mmboe of 2C reserves.

Tinubu’s continued success is worthy of emulation by entrepreneurs and prospects especially in Nigeria’s inclement business environment.