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A group of concerned shareholders of Oando Plc has cautioned the company over purported moves to reconcile Oando and Ansbury Investments Inc. owned by popular Nigerian-Italian billionaire, Gabriele Volpi.
The shareholders objected to the reconciliatory moves on the basis of an on-going investigation of Volpi for money laundering by Italian authorities. Volpi who holds Nigerian and Italian dual citizenship, is currently under investigation in Italy for alleged tax evasion, along with some of his associates.
The investigation, which is being conducted by the Italian Economic and Financial Crimes Police, also focuses on Volpi’s longtime associate, and popular Italian banker, Gaimpiero Fiorani. Both have been brought before judges Francesco Pinto and Marcello Maresca, accused of having returned several million of Euros to Italy from a huge tax evasion scheme, a scheme the prosecutors believe, was designed and engineered by Volpi using his ‘right-hand man,’ Fiorani.
With the recent development, the shareholders under various umbrella associations including Investor/Distinct Shareholders Association, Pacesetters Shareholders Association and Sage Shareholders amongst others insisted that Volpi needs to be on the right side of the law before any reconciliation with Oando which they described as a law-abiding corporate institution.
According to the president of one of the shareholder groups who spoke on condition of anonymity, “All we are saying is that Volpi should do the right by sorting every issue he has with the law before seeking to reconcile with Oando. As shareholders, we own Oando Plc and make it mandatory on the board to resist any attempt to reconcile Volpi with our company while he has a case of fraud to reconcile with the Italian authorities.”
Also speaking in the same vein, a senior official at the Convention on Business Integrity, who pleaded not to be named, said “reconciling Ausbury and Oando may raise fundamental ethical questions on Oando and cause the Italian anti-corruption police to beam its searchlight on Oando.” The official asserted further: “This alone may affect not just the reputation of Oando but its share value.”
All efforts by BusinessDay to reach the management of Oando proved abortive as the company didn’t respond to emails sent to the company.
According to data obtained from Bloomberg, Oando’s stock which opened at N9.50 on Thursday, April 19 had by 3pm same day traded at N9.60 after the lifting of suspension by the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
It will be recalled that the Nigeria Stock Exchange on 18th October 2017 announced that it had placed the shares of Oando Plc, a public quoted energy company trading on the floor of the NSE, on ‘full suspension for 48 hours.’ Thereafter on 23rd October 2017, the NSE further announced that it had placed the shares of the Company on ‘Technical Suspension’.
But just five days after the technical suspension placed on its shares was lifted, the firm’s shares recorded 51percent massive growth.
The fact that 178 million Oando shares were on a bid for the first day of trade after the lifting of the suspension but only 5.5 million were available for sale further attested to the high demand for the company’s stock whose six-month absence from the NSE was keenly felt by all shareholders.
A member of the Pacesetter Shareholders Association, who pleaded anonymity, also expressed reservation at the reconciliation move, saying it was capable of eroding the company’s stock and reputation.
“We jubilated when SEC and the NSE finally heeded our pleas by lifting the suspension placed on Oando. It will be unfortunate if after six long months we have not learnt anything and proceed to reconcile Oando, a company doing well, with a man on the wrong side of the law. One of those two brands will kill the other, and it will not profit shareholders like me”, he maintained.
Data from Bloomberg revealed Oando traded N7.55 as at 10 am Friday morning.
DIPO OLADEHINDE
