Billionaire Tony Elumelu has tightened his grip on Seplat Energy, buying another 6 million shares in the Nigerian oil and gas producer and pushing his group’s combined holding past 21%.
Seplat disclosed the purchase in a regulatory filing at the end of September. The shares were bought by Heirs Energies Ltd., a company Elumelu controls, at £8.87 each, or about £53.22 million in total. That is roughly $72 million at current exchange rates.
The deal lifts Heirs Energies’ direct holding to 27,943,867 shares. Add the stake held by Heirs Holdings, Elumelu’s other investment vehicle, and the two now control 126.4 million shares. That works out to 21.07% of Seplat’s 599,944,561 issued shares, up from about 20.07% before the trade. The latest purchase amounts to about 1% of the company.
The price tells its own story. When Heirs Energies agreed in December to buy Maurel & Prom’s entire 20.07% stake, it paid 305 pence a share in a deal worth about $496 million. This time it paid nearly three times that. Seplat’s shares have climbed sharply this year, and one tally has them up more than 175% since January, with a record close of 16,000 naira in Lagos on Sept. 24.
Elumelu is no passive investor. He joined Seplat’s board in January, after a Maurel & Prom representative stepped down, and in June the company named him its next chairman. He takes over on Jan. 1, 2027, from Udoma Udo Udoma, who retires at the end of this year. Effiong Okon, a Seplat veteran of eight years, became chief executive on Aug. 1, succeeding Roger Brown after more than 13 years at the company.
Elumelu also chairs Heirs Holdings, United Bank for Africa and Transcorp Group, which makes Seplat one of the most valuable listed positions in a sprawling portfolio spanning energy, banking, power and hospitality.
Seplat has not said what the added shares mean for its plans, and the filing gave no reason for the purchase. The company is pursuing a 2030 strategy built around growing its gas business and exploring new energy opportunities.
For investors, the message is hard to miss. The man about to chair the board is also buying more of it, and at prices far above what he paid the first time.
