How Oando’s shareholding structure nearly crippled Wale Tinubu

By Odunewu Segun

CEO of Oando Plc, Wale Tinubu on Tuesday survived the plot to have him removed as shareholders of the company passed a vote of confidence on the management team led by him at the company’s 4oth Annual General Meeting held in Lagos.  

Recall that Alhaji Dahiru Mangal and Ansbury lnc, had alleged that a gross abuse of corporate governance and financial mismanagement by the Wale Tinubu-led management is leading to a downturn in the fortunes of the company.

National Daily gathered that Ocean and Oil Development Partners Limited (OODP), Oando major shareholder, owns 6,734,943,086 (55.96% of total number of shares) shares in Oando Plc and is owned by Tinubu.

Investigations revealed that Ocean and Oil Development Partners Limited (OODP BVI), registered in the British Virgin Islands which owns about 99% of Ocean and Oil Development Partners Limited (OODP), the direct owners of Oando Plc is linked to Mr. Jubril Adewale Tinubu and Mr. Omamofe Boyo with  own 22.38% and 11.19% respectively in OODP BVI.

Another company, Ocean and Oil Investments Limited (OOIL) also owns approximately 159,701,243 (1.33% of total number of shares) shares in Oando further broken down as 0.97% and 0.29% to Mr. Jubril Adewale Tinubu and Mr. Omamofe Boyo respectively.

Meanwhile, Gabriel Volpi, an Italian and owner of Intels, in 2012 invested $700 million in Ocean and Oil Development Partners Limited (OODPL) BVI through an entity named Ansbury Plc. This gave him 61.9% stake in OODPL BVI.  In addition, Volpi lent $80 million to Whitmore Limited, a company owned by Wale Tinubu to acquire a stake in OODPL BVI.

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Volpi believes he owns 55.69% of Oando Plc, since Wale Tinubu has been unable to pay back the $80 million that was lent to him. Ansbury Plc, also has no representative on Oando’s board. Dahiru Mangal claims he owns holds a 17.9% direct stake in Oando Plc. However, Oando Plc claims he owns 4% and that the 13.9% is undisclosed.

Going by the information above, Alhaji Mangal and Volpi claim they own nearly 70% of Oando shares, which makes them majority shareholders (at least indirectly). Both parties, have alleged that Wale Tinubu has mismanaged the firm, and are pushing for his removal from the board.

National Daily gathered that both parties are upset that they may have been short changed by the board as they do not have direct control of the management of the company, a situation made possible by the complex shareholding arrangement in place.

Wale Tinubu in his defence has stated that the disagreement between himself and Volpi over the $80 million lent to him to acquire a stake in OODPL, is currently before an arbitration panel.

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He claims the move by both parties is a ploy to takeover Oando and remove him from office. A company he ostensibly founded years ago. He also claims Ansbury Plc, had a representative on Oando’s board who approved the company’s 2015 financial statement, which Volpi alleges were cooked.

National Daily however gathered that the conclusion of the investigation, last week, yielded no material evidence that could trigger the postponement of the 40th AGM and Oando was given the go-ahead to hold its AGM.

Not all was however rosy at the AGM as some shareholders opposed to the management disrupted the meeting for some minutes until the crowd dispersed after key representatives of the shareholders association intervened.

Oando claims that the protesters were non-shareholders that were probably paid to disrupt the meeting following the failure of the protesters to postpone the 40th AGM.