Nigerian billionaire Ladi Jadesimi will pocket $5.5 million from Aradel Holdings as the company posts its most profitable year ever

Ladi Jadesimi, the founder of Aradel Holdings Plc and one of its largest individual shareholders, stands to receive N7.558 billion ($5.51 million) in dividends for the 2025 financial year after the Nigerian energy group posted record profit after tax of N757.3 billion ($552.4 million), its strongest annual result since listing on the Nigerian Exchange.

Jadesimi holds 229,034,760 ordinary shares in Aradel through his investment vehicle Badagry Creek FZE, a 5.27 percent stake that makes him one of the most significant individual shareholders of any listed Nigerian energy company. With the board proposing a total 2025 dividend of N33.0 ($0.024) per share, comprising an interim dividend of N10.0 per share already paid and a proposed final dividend of N23.0 ($0.016) per share subject to shareholder approval at the Annual General Meeting, the full-year payout translates to N7.558 billion for Jadesimi's position. The final tranche alone, once approved, will deliver N5.268 billion ($3.84 million) directly to his Badagry Creek holding.

The total 2025 distribution represents a 26 percent increase in dollar terms from the US$0.019 per share Aradel paid for 2024, reflecting the board's confidence in the group's underlying earnings and its stated policy of calibrating dividends against dollar profitability and cash flows rather than naira-denominated results.

Jadesimi, 81, built Aradel over more than three decades from its founding in 1992 as Niger Delta Exploration and Production Plc into the integrated energy platform it is today. He stepped down from the chairmanship in the first half of 2025 in line with statutory tenure limitations, but retained his full shareholding, meaning the bumper 2025 payout flows to him as a significant individual shareholder rather than as a sitting board member. The company assumed its current name, Aradel Holdings, in May 2023 and listed on the NGX in October 2024.

The dividend was underpinned by a financial year that reshaped the company's scale entirely. Revenue rose 20 percent to N699.4 billion ($510.1 million) while EBITDA more than doubled to N815.0 billion ($594.5 million). The headline profit figure of N757.3 billion was boosted by two non-recurring gains arising from the accounting treatment of two landmark acquisitions completed on December 31, 2025, a N217.1 billion ($158.4 million) gain on bargain purchase and a N393.2 billion ($286.8 million) currency translation gain. Those acquisitions, of an additional 40 percent interest in ND Western Limited and the resulting increase in Aradel's effective stake in Renaissance Africa Energy Company to 53.3 percent, also ballooned total assets to N9.9 trillion ($7.2 billion) from N1.75 trillion ($1.28 billion) a year earlier, a 466 percent expansion.

Operationally, the group delivered solid underlying growth. Gas production rose 59 percent to 51.4 million standard cubic feet per day, a new record, while crude oil sales volumes grew 32 percent and refinery utilisation improved to 49 percent from 40 percent in 2024. The group also achieved 10.2 million man-hours without a Lost Time Injury across all operated assets during the period.

At Aradel's current share price, Jadesimi's 229,034,760 shares carry a market value of approximately N155.7 billion ($113.6 million), a position built entirely through his founding stake rather than open-market accumulation. His dividend income from Aradel across 2024 and 2025 alone amounts to a combined payout reflecting the group's rapid transition from a mid-sized Nigerian oil producer to one of the country's most capitalised indigenous energy companies.