NEARLY four years into the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has said they are planning to offer shares to people to buy on the Nigerian stock market.
The move is a welcome development as people can now invest in the national oil company and share in profits.
Selling shares could also mean the government gets more money from taxes, dividends (which are like little payouts to shareholders), and royalties. Plus, it means Nigerians will really own a part of their national oil company.
The NNPCL announced this in a statement on Thursday, March 27 signed its chief corporate communications officer, Olufemi Soneye.
He said the NNPCL is at the final stage of getting listed in the capital market, in keeping with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
According to Soneye, the company’s finance boss, Olugbenga Oluwaniyi, mentioned this at a meeting with their partners in Abuja on the same Thursday.
Oluwaniyi said the NNPCL is currently talking to potential partners in what they’re calling an “IPO Beauty Parade”. This is basically where they chat with different companies to see how they can help with the share sale, which is called an Initial Public Offer (IPO).
The idea of the “IPO Beauty Parade” is to find out which companies can help them with things like talking to investors, getting ready for the IPO, and being their investment bank partners.
The areas of partnership required include investor relations, IPO readiness advisers, and investment bank partners, the company stated.
“The company with the best offer in terms of project partnership would be selected for each of the three categories,” the statement added.
The ICIR reports that the PIA provides for the NNPCL to list its shares in the capital market in line with the provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 1990.
An IPO is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors.
There has been concern over the delay in listing the state-owned oil firm despite having transitioned into a Limited Liability Company on July 19, 2022, with the signing of the PIA. The ICIR earlier reported.
The NNPCL’s failure to enlist in Nigeria’s capital market came following the initial plan to list in the middle of 2023.