Nigeria's National Petroleum Company seeks advisers for long-delayed IPO

(Bloomberg) – Nigeria’s state oil company is courting international and local markets for advisers as it prepares for a long-delayed initial public offering.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. is seeking investor relations specialists, IPO advisers and investment bank partners to help manage the share sale, Chief Finance and Investor Relations Officer Olugbenga Oluwaniyi said, according to a statement issued in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

He did not give a timeline for the IPO, saying that the company was in the “final stage” of obtaining a listing.

NNPC had repeatedly delayed a share sale after it was first proposed nearly a decade ago. An IPO was last mooted four years ago, when it posted a profit for the first time in 44 years. Then-President Muhammad Buhari signed legislation in 2021 that allows the company to sell shares to the public.

The company would draw on the experience of Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian oil giant that raised $25.6 billion in the largest IPO in history in 2019, Mele Kyari, the group chief executive officer, said in 2021.