Forte Oil Plc is to raise N50 billion fresh capital through the debt instrument before the end of 2016 for the expansion of its operations.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Forte Oil, Mr Akin Akinfemiwa made this known recently at the company’s Fact Behind the Figure presentation on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos.
Akinfemiwa said, “We will be raising debt capital in 2016 and we are in discussion with NSE but for equity fund raising, it will not happen this year maybe in the future.”
He added that “We want to raise long term debts and make our interest rate very predictive. The first series of the fund will be between N10 and N15 billion.”
Speaking on the company’s half year result for the period ended June 30, 2016, he pointed out that in H1 2016, Forte Oil maintained its 14 per cent market share among the major marketers in the white products segment of the downstream sector as a result of its on-going strategic retail network expansion and growth of its commercial and lubricants customer base despite market difficulties.
“The company recorded 47 per cent in revenue, 99 per cent increase in gross margin, 69 per cent increase in profit before tax and 90 per cent increase in profit after tax while total asset grew by 14 per cent in H1, 2016 as against H1, 2015.
“The business was also able to activate an additional 40 new sales points for its lubricants as we continue to focus on the higher margin products,” he said.
According to the CEO, “we have resumed operation of our LPG sales having achieved 100 per cent completion stage on the repairs of the LPG storage assets as this will ensure constant product availability.
He added that major overhaul of the Geregu Power Plant at a cost of $83 million awarded to the OEM Messrs Simens AG is nearing completion with third and final unit being worked on, saying the facility’s output is now at 435MW from the 414MW upon hand over in 2013.
He stated that FO has entered strategic partnership and alliances with technical partners to strategically position for the proposed federal government sale of marginal oil fields and divestment of international oil companies investments in local oil blocks.
He said that the second half will be much better than the first half of the year, saying the company will continue to focus on high margin products, fully exploit LPG business and expand the Geregu Power Plant asset.
He also added that it will diversify its revenue base, strengthen its balance sheet, optimise distribution channels and pursue a focused merger and acquisition strategy.
Source: http://leadership.ng