Today Vitol, Helios Investment Partners (Helios) and Shell have completed the second phase of the transaction that was first announced on February 19th 2011. Vitol and Helios have acquired the majority of Shell’s shareholding in their businesses in Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Guinea as well as the service company Africa Downstream Oil Products (ADOP), the employing company for those Vivo Energy staff who are based in South Africa. These companies will now become part of Vivo Energy, joining the seven companies that transferred to Vivo Energy on December 1st last year. These were Cape Verde, Mauritius, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia.
The final 4 countries that are included in this transaction will transfer to Vivo Energy later in the year, subject to local regulatory and legal approvals. These countries are Egypt, Kenya, Uganda and Ghana.
On final completion of this transaction Vivo Energy will operate more than 1300 retail stations across Africa under the Shell brand and will have access to around 1.2 million cubic metres of storage. Shell and Vivo Lubricants will have blending capacity at plants in eight countries, producing Shell branded lubricants, with the opportunity to market across Africa.
Vitol and Helios each own 40% of Vivo Energy, with Shell holding the remaining 20%. Shell and Vivo Lubricants is 50% owned by Shell and 50% owned by Vitol and Helios.
Christian Chammas, CEO of Vivo Energy, said “We are delighted to welcome these new companies to Vivo Energy. Since December last year, we have made good progress in creating a unique business for our customers in Africa. A business with ambitious plans to invest and grow, under the leadership of our country teams and the world class Shell Brand. This is an exciting time for Vivo Energy and the four new companies that have joined today will make a significant contribution to our future”.
About Vitol:
The Vitol Group was founded in 1966 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since then the company has grown significantly to become a major participant in world energy markets and is now one of the world’s largest independent energy traders. Its trading portfolio includes crude oil, oil products, bunker fuel, LPG, LNG, natural gas, coal, power, metals and carbon emissions. Vitol trades with all the major national oil companies, the integrated oil majors and the independent refiners and traders. Through its trading business, Vitol has established itself in shipping, as one of the world’s largest charterers of crude oil and oil product tankers. Globally Vitol trades around 6 million barrels of crude oil and products per day and its 2011 revenues were $297 billion.
In addition to its trading business and its 50% share in the storage and terminals business, VTTI, with 11 terminals on five continents, Vitol has an exploration and production business which includes interests in Ghana, Cameroon, Kazakhstan, Russia and Azerbaijan. It also currently owns and operates over 100,000 barrels per day in refining assets and a thermal coal mine in British Columbia, Canada.
About Helios:
Helios Investment Partners is an Africa-focused private investment firm. Helios operates a family of funds and their related co-investment entities, aggregating more than $1.9 billion in capital commitments, pursuing a full range of investment types, including business formations, growth equity investments, structured investments in listed entities and large scale leveraged acquisitions across Africa. The firm also managed the $110 million Modern Africa Fund on behalf of a range of investors which included the U.S. government’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation and several leading U.S. corporations.
Established in 2004 and led by co-founding partners Tope Lawani and Babatunde Soyoye, Helios is one of the largest investment firms focusing on Africa and is among the few independent pan-African private equity investment firms to be founded and managed by Africans.
Helios’ portfolio companies operate in more than 25 countries, and in various industrial sectors, across the African continent. The firm has significant experience in private equity investing across a broad range of industries and investment types – leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, joint ventures, seed-stage venture capital, restructurings, and strategic public equity investments.
Limited partners in Helios’ funds include several leading global investment funds, endowments and foundations, family offices, high net-worth individuals and development finance institutions, the latter of which include the UK’s CDC, the US government’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank.
Further details on Helios Investment Partners can be found at www.heliosinvestment.com.
About Shell:
Royal Dutch Shell plc is incorporated in England and Wales, has its headquarters in The Hague and is listed on the London, Amsterdam, and New York stock exchanges. Shell companies have operations in more than 90 countries and territories with businesses including oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects.
For further information, visit: www.shell.com.
Further details on Vitol are available on www.vitol.com or please contact: Brunswick Group LLP
Patrick Handley 020 7404 5959
Elizabeth Adams 020 7404 5959