Two companies to buy Shell Ghana

Shell Global will soon lose its grip on Shell Ghana following a proposed restructuring in the shareholding of the Ghanaian subsidiary that will see the African-based private investment firm, Helios Fund, and the Swiss-based oil trader, Vitol, come in as the new majority shareholders.

Shell Global, which currently has about 82 per cent interest in Shell Ghana, is seeking to sell about 50 per cent of its stake to the two companies at a yet-to-be disclosed amount while retaining just 25 per cent stake.

The arrangement is part of an ownership restructuring of Shell Ghana and is at the instance of its mother company, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr Alex Mould, has said.

He disclosed further in an interview that an application on the restructuring is currently with the authority for approval.

The new arrangement is expected to see the Helios Fund, which specialises in investing in emerging markets, pump more money into Shell Ghana while giving it the opportunity to leverage on the international distribution expertise of Vitol and Shell Global, according to the CEO of the NPA.

“They brought us the application recently and it shows also that Shell Global is increasing the Ghanaian ownership in Shell Ghana from the current 18 per cent to about 25 per cent. That, to me, is good,” Mr Mould said.

The 18 per cent stake is currently held by dozens of local institutional and individual shareholders. The (GCB) Bank Limited, through its subsidiary, Development Finance and Holdings Limited, is the highest shareholder with nine per cent.

Mr Mould added that the authority would soon approve it given that it has no say in issues regarding the shareholding of companies within its domain.

“The application is just administrative and we cannot say we won’t approve it,” he added.

It is, however, not clear if Shell Ghana, which has been operating in the country since the 1920s will be rebranded given that its mother company – Shell Global – will no longer, be the majority shareholder.

By Maxwell Adombila Akalaare/Graphic Business/Ghana