Gabon plans to buy an oil company owned by The Carlyle Group Inc. by taking advantage of its right to increase its stake as an existing shareholder of the firm that pumps crude from the central African nation.
The government’s move threatens Etablissements Maurel & Prom SA’s agreement to buy Assala Energy from Carlyle for $730 million. This comes four months after Gabon’s leadership changed in a military coup.
“With a view to boost our revenue, we have decided to exercise the state’s preemptive right to purchase the oil company Assala,” Interim Gabonese President Brice Oligui Nguema said in a Dec. 31 televised address shared on his official X account.
A Carlyle spokesman declined to comment. Spokespeople for Maurel & Prom and Assala Energy didn’t respond to calls and email requests for comment.
Nguema, a 48-year-old general who used to head Gabon’s presidential guard, emerged as the leader of an Aug. 30 coup that overthrew President Ali Bongo. Gabon is one of OPEC’s smallest members, pumping about 220,000 barrels of oil a day. Assala’s operations account for a fifth of that production, with a daily output of 45,000 barrels, according to the company’s website.
“This is a move of great national significance that will allow the republic to show its sovereignty in the oil sector,” Nguema said in his New Year’s Eve address.
M&P shares traded 7.8% lower at 4.25 p.m. in Paris Tuesday.
The French company had offered the government a chance to increase its stake in the subsidiary Assala Gabon from 25% to 27.5%, with an option to raise its holdings by another 12.5% over the next five years. M&P said on Aug. 15 it expected Gabonese authorities to approve the agreement by the first quarter of this year, and it further restated its confidence in the deal after the military takeover.
The Gabonese government plans to exercise its preemptive right through the state-owned Gabon Oil Company, an oil ministry spokesperson said by phone, declining to comment further. It wasn’t clear Tuesday how the government intended to fund the purchase.
Carlyle invested in Assala in 2017 through its private equity fund focused on energy opportunities outside the US, pouring in more than $1.3 billion to boost production and extend reserve life from five to eight years by the end of 2022, it said in an Aug. 15 statement.
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January 5th, 2024
Courtesy of BNN Bloomberg, a report on Gabon’s plans to buy an oil company owned by The Carlyle Group:
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