UK Helios Buys Last 25% of Nigerian Axxela
Nigeria's independent gas portfolio company, Axxela, is now wholly owned by private equity firm Helios Investment Partners. A report from the company formally announced the acquisition of Oando's remaining 25% stake in Axxela by Helios for $41.5mn. That is a modest $3mn or so premium to the $115.8mn that Helios paid for 75% in December 2016.
According to the report, Axxela CEO Bolaji Osunsanya said: "While paying homage to our storied history and
legacy, our recognition as being fully owned by Helios gives us global positioning, greater financial flexibility, and access to capital going forward.
"As a partner of choice, we have immense pride in the growth, robustness, and stability of our existing business enterprise, enabling us to spur the aggressive expansion of our footprint via our audacious growth initiatives in Nigeria and the West African region."
Helios is a private equity investment firm operating in Africa and based in UK with additional offices in Nairobi,
Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria. The company was founded in 2004. Last month, Axxela finished its gas pipeline in the Greater Lagos Area, to distribute gas to industrial clusters. Officials at Axxela have however said the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS)-Ibadan-Ilorin-Jebba pipeline is a government project, of which the company is a collaborating partner.
In October 2017, it was reported that the 510-km Escravos Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) – Ibadan-Ilorin-Jebba gas pipeline project – was to be executed by Axxela, but according to an Oando report, in October 2017, Axxela submitted a feasibility study on the project to the Nigerian Gas Processing and Transportation Company (NGPTC), a subsidiary of state producer, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
It was compiled in collaboration with Worley Parsons, and the US Trade and Development Authority. The pipeline project belongs to NNPC through its NGPTC subsidiary and will enable better gas to power solutions across the western and central states of Nigeria.