[No Results, N350b in Debt] Oando Boasts It’s Ready To Acquire More Upstream Assets

Reuters news agency reports that Oando is positioning itself to buy oil assets from International Oil Companies (IOCs) as the price of oil continues to drop. The company’s Chief Executive, Wale Tinubu made this declaration in an interview going as far as claiming that Oando is the “natural buyer of choice.”

IOC’s have no choice but to sell

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“When you compare the size of the resource base (the majors) have in Africa vis-à-vis the rest of the world, it’s clear that they will have to do Nigerian divestments and we are the natural buyer of choice,” he said.

“We are driven, we are keen and we are on the lookout for opportunities and we are confident of securing opportunities towards increasing our reserve base and our production,” he said.

On betting on the price of oil

“We’re betting on an eventual oil price rise and we see the best time for securing those reserves as being now and not when the market rebounds,” Tinubu said.

On why he didn’t bid for Afren

“We looked at it but we’re not really interested. It doesn’t satisfy our criteria we believe there are many better opportunities out there,” he said.

How ironic?

The irony of this all is that Oando is yet to release its 2014 Full Year results and has not released any results this year at all. The company is essentially owing 4 quarters of results! Information reaching Nairametrics suggest the results could be so bad they are delaying it as further as they can stashing up enough cash to sweeten shareholders with dividends.

Last year, the company delayed its 2013 results by about 9 months claiming then that its acquisition of ConocoPhillips was the main reason. When the result was eventually announced the company reported a N4.6billion loss. It however, placated shareholders with a 30 kobo dividends. Its 9 months results also showed a pre-tax profits of N10b about 4% higher than the same period a year earlier.

How it intends to acquire more upstream assets with a debt burden of N351.7 billion and 1.6x its tangible equity beats our imagination.

It will be risky to bet against Wale Tinubu considering his penchant for taking risks. Leveraged acquisitions is not off the table for a company that has raised equity via rights issue about three times since 2010.