By Dipo Olowookere
Shares of Oando Plc depreciated at the stock exchange on Friday, a day after a tank farm operated by one of its subsidiaries in Lagos was razed by fire.
Business Post had reported on Thursday that the tank farm located in the Ijora Badia area of Lagos State and operated by OVH Energy, an arm of Oando, was gutted by fire.
When the unfortunate incident happened, officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), the Federal Fire Service, the Lagos State Fire Service, the Nigerian Navy Fire, Nigerian Police and Forte Oil Fire Service rushed to the scene to put the situation under control.
The next day at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the market was not happy with the news and the company’s equities took a hit as some investors offloaded the securities.
As a result of the sell-off, the stock went down by 2.17 per cent or 6 kobo to settle at N2.70 per unit compared with the previous day’s value of N2.76 per unit.
An analysis of the day’s trading done by Business Post showed that a total of 4.1 million units of Oando shares worth N11.1 million were transacted during the session in 57 deals.
On the day of the inferno in Lagos, only 784,268 units of the company’s equities were traded by investors and the share price appreciated by one kobo to N2.76 per unit.
Oando is still one of the stocks on the exchange investors buy and sell with caution because of its issue with the apex regulator in the nation’s capital market, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The issue started when one of the main investors in the firm wrote a petition to the regulators, alleging a fraud. The matter was investigated and the company was fined.
In fact, the board of Oando was sacked by SEC, but the board led by Mr Wale Tinubu, took the matter to a court in Lagos to stop the action.
It was alleged that the company was not sincere with its financial statements and this led to the suspension of the company from the stock market.
Some personalities waded into the matter and the warring parties asked to embrace peace.
Modupe Gbadeyanka