Recession:
Latest ranking of the world’s richest people by Forbes has shown that oil
tycoon and Nigerian Business mogul, Femi Otedola‘s net worth has
plunged from $1.8 Billion to $550 Million as recession beat down a massive
drop in the stock price of Forte Oil, the Nigerian Stock Exchange-listed
petroleum marketing company.
As at the close of trading on
Friday, Forte Oil’s share price plunged to a one-year low of N145 ($0.44) per
share, down from an all-time high of N342 ($1.1) in March this year when FORBES
published its annual ranking of the world’s richest people.
Apart from the tumble in Forte Oil’s
stock price, Otedola’s fortune has also been adversely affected by a central
bank devaluation of the Naira in June. In dollar terms, the devaluation in
addition to Forte’s floundering share price has knocked about $1.3 billion off
the value of Otedola’s fortune which was pegged at $1.8 billion in March.
Otedola, who is Forte Oil Plc’s
Chairman, is now worth only $550 million as at the close of business
of Friday, according to the FORBES’ billionaires’ database.
Femi Otedola was unavailable for
comments. However, an analyst at a Lagos-based Investment bank hinted that the
share price drop may not be unconnected to the current recession in Nigeria
that has witnessed 2 consecutive quarters of negative growth with inflation
soaring to levels as high as 17%.
Investors are dumping Forte Oil’s
shares as a result of wide-spread disappointing results of Nigerian Companies
of which Forte Oil Plc is also not immune.
The company’s profit after tax was
down at N2.80 billion ($8.8 million) for the third quarter ended Sept 30 2016
as against N4.28 billion ($13.5 million) for the same period in 2015.
Sources also attribute the results
to reduced demand for energy consumption as a result of the recently increased
pump price which has adversely affected the fortunes of oil marketing companies
in Nigeria.
Source:Vanguard Newspaper
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Business