London court orders Tinubu’s firm to pay $680m debt

The London Court of International Arbitration has ordered Ocean and Oil Development Partners Limited, belonging to Wale Tinubu, the Chief Executive Officer of Oando Plc., to pay Ansbury Investment Incorporated $600 million.

The court also ordered Whitmore Asset Management Limited owned by Tinubu and his partner, Omamofe Boyo, to pay $80 million indebted to Ansbury, bringing the total payable debt to $680 million (about N216 billion).

In a statement released on Sunday by the international counsel for Ansbury Investment, Andrea Moja, the verdict was delivered on July 6 and the notice of the award had been communicated to the two firms on July 9.

“The OODP (Ocean and Oil Development Partners Limited) BVI is presently indebted to Ansbury in the total principal sum of $600m.

“Whitmore is presently indebted to Ansbury in the total principal sum of $80m in respect of the loan made under the First Loan Agreement (as amended),” it read.

According to the statement, Ansbury had in 2012 invested about $700m in Ocean and Oil Development Partners Limited by acquiring a 61.9 per cent stake in the firm, while a company owned by Tinubu, Withmore Limited, held 38.10 per cent of the stake in OODP BVI.

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“Tinubu had approached Mr Volpi to invest in the British Virgin Islands-registered firm when Oando Plc was seeking to acquire ConocoPhillips’ upstream oil and gas assets in Nigeria for $1.5bn.

“OODP BVI, in turn, owns 99.99 per cent of the shares of Ocean and Oil Development Partners Nigeria Limited, which holds 55.96 per cent of the shares in Oando.

“When the disagreement broke in 2017, Ansbury also petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission in May accusing the management of Oando Plc of mismanagement, cooked books and huge indebtedness,” the statement added.

The dispute between Ansbury Investment and Oando Plc had begun in 2017 when the former accused Oando’s management of insider trading and falsification of financial statements.

The development led to the suspension of Oando from the Nigerian Stock Exchange and Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The suspension was later lifted.

 

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