Oando’s Case With Shareholders Lingers As Court Shifts Hearing On Share Acquisition

The dispute between Oando Plc and its fourteen minority shareholders will linger as the hearing of the case for the purchase of all of their shares has been shifted to March.

The company said this in a filing on the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Friday.

The case began in 2021 when the fourteen minority shareholders of Oando led by Venus Construction Company Limited asked the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to compel Ocean and Oil Development Partners Limited (OODP) or Oando to acquire 299,257,869 shares belonging to them.

OODP did not challenge the shareholders but “filed an Answer and a Cross Petition dated 15th March 2022 stating that it is willing and ready to buy out the minority shareholders via a members’ scheme of arrangement.

However, on June 7, 2022, the court directed Oando to within 30 days, prepare the Scheme Document for the purchase of all the Minority Shareholders’ shares in Oando Plc for submission to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and/or the NGX as may be necessary.

The court also directed Oando to convene within 120 days a meeting of the holders of its fully paid ordinary shares on the proposed Scheme of Arrangement by OODP for the purchase of all the minority shareholders’ shares in Oando amongst other things.

OANDO failed to meet the deadline and applied for an extension.

The court on October 18, 2022, extended the time the Company has to file its Scheme of Arrangement document.

The timeframe for summoning meeting with shareholders on the matter was equally shifted by 60 days.

The date of the hearing was also adjourned to January 26, 2023.

But Oando said the court did not sit on the last adjourned date of January 26, 2023, previously communicated “due to the unavoidable absence of the presiding Judge.

“This matter has now been adjourned to March 30, 2023 for report of compliance with the Court’s order dated June 7, 2022, directing the Company to file its Scheme of Arrangement document with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the NGX, among other orders.”