BY FEMI ASU
In his memoir, Otedola mentions Dangote – his role model-turned-friend – many times. He describes him as “a textbook example of an entrepreneur who can see into the future”, saying “in just over 40 years, the Kano-born and Lagos-based businessmen had become a phenomenon, celebrated around the globe”.
“Alhaji Aliko Dangote, whose Rolls-Royce was an object of enchantment for me in 1981, is my best friend today,” he adds.
Otedola tells us he invited Dangote to bid for the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries with him in 2007.
Talking about his failed bid to acquire Chevron’s fuel retail business, I think he stopped short of broaching the subject of the feud: “It was one of the instances that convinced me that you don’t always win, and that that’s not always such a bad thing. You must know when to take your loss and move on.”
With the meteoric rise of Zenon, the billionaire businessman had set sights on acquiring a major player and therefore invested heavily in the stocks of Mobil Oil Nigeria and Texaco Nigeria, becoming their second-largest shareholder in 2007.
“I opted not to buy Chevron’s Nigeria business for $700m. When Chevron Oil and Gas Ltd put the country’s Texaco distribution and retail operation up for sale in 2009, I already held a 13 percent stake in it and offered $300m for the business. It wasn’t enough. The consortium of MRS Holdings and Petroci Holding Company eventually bought the majority stake, for $700m,” he says.
The falling-out between Otedola and Dangote, which the Financial Times called “one of the most publicised dramas in Nigeria at the end of the oil bubble”, began in late 2008, soon after Chevron Oil and Gas Holdings announced its intention to divest Texaco Nigeria.
MRS Holdings, part of the consortium that outbid Otedola, was run by Dangote’s half-brother, Sayyu Dantata. It was reported that Otedola, aggrieved that Dangote had broken a gentleman’s agreement not to interfere in each other’s interests – Dangote’s being sugar and cement, Otedola’s in oil and shipping – declared war on his friend. He announced that he was investing $2bn in sugar and cement production, and he took Chevron to court to prevent the sale. The feud was resolved in 2009.
In April 2013, Dangote announced his plan to build an oil refinery. That year, Otedola diversified into the power sector by buying into Geregu Power.
Otedola sold his stake in Forte Oil in July 2019. “When people heard that I was selling Forte Oil, many were shocked. My friends pressed me for an explanation,” he says.
I recall that his friend Wale Tinubu’s Oando, which sold a major stake in its fuel marketing subsidiary in 2016, also exited the retail business in 2019. ExxonMobil also offloaded its holding in Mobil Oil Nigeria in 2016.
Did they exit the fuel retail business because of Dangote refinery, which Otedola described as the eighth wonder of the world in February 2020?
Earlier in the memoir, he points out that he was able to control the diesel market because the country’s four refineries were out of commission.
Otedola recalls the question his friend Tunde Folawiyo asked him when the former wanted to build diesel storage tanks: “What if the refinery starts working?”
“I did not respond, but clearly understood the implications. If the refinery started working, there would be no need for middlemen,” he says.
In September last year, while congratulating Dangote on the start of petrol production at his giant refinery, Otedola wrote on social media platform X: “The depot owners should take heed — it’s time to dismantle those depots and sell them as scraps while the market is still high. The world has changed, and those who do not adapt will be left behind.”
To be sure, the story of the two billionaire’s friendship will be super interesting.
