Table of Contents
Gabonese billionaire Samuel Dossou-Aworet added $430 million to the value of his stakes in two Nigerian oil producers in the third quarter of 2026, as shares of Seplat Energy Plc and Aradel Holdings Plc rallied on the Nigerian Exchange.
Dossou-Aworet, the Benin-born founder of Gabon's Petrolin Group, owns 81,015,319 shares in Seplat, about 13.5% of the company, and 532,693,719 shares in Aradel, about 12.3%. Billionaires.Africa calculations show the two stakes were worth $1.59 billion on Sept. 30, up from $1.16 billion on July 1.
Seplat produced most of the gain. The company pumps oil and gas from onshore and shallow-water fields in the Niger Delta and is listed in both Lagos and London. Its shares rose 40.8% during the quarter, from 11,363.90 naira on July 1 to 16,000.10 naira on Sept. 30. That lifted the value of Dossou-Aworet's Seplat stake from $667.1 million to $976.1 million, an increase of $309 million.
The stock climbed in large single-day jumps. It rose 10% on Sept. 3 and another 10% on Sept. 10, then gained 7.3% on Sept. 24 to reach a record 16,000 naira.
Crude prices rose above $100 a barrel in September after disruption to tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz cut supply. Seplat also reported a 74.1% rise in first-half profit before tax to 790.4 billion naira.
Aradel is a Nigerian oil and gas producer founded by Ladi Jadesimi and formerly known as Niger Delta Exploration and Production. Its shares rose 19.9% over the quarter, from 1,275.80 naira to 1,530 naira. The value of Dossou-Aworet's Aradel shares increased from $492.4 million to $613.7 million, a gain of $121.3 million.
The naira strengthened from 1,380.17 per dollar on July 1 to 1,328.02 on Sept. 30, adding about 4% to the dollar value of both stakes.
Seplat ended the quarter with a market value of about 9.6 trillion naira, making it the sixth most valuable company on the Nigerian Exchange. Aradel was valued at about 6.65 trillion naira.
The intelligence satisfies curiosity. The paid briefings satisfy strategy.
Every Monday, Elite subscribers receive an Investor Memo breaking down the deal, the structure and the positioning behind the week's most consequential African wealth story - the kind of analysis that doesn't appear anywhere else.
Twice a month, a Wealth Intelligence brief profiles a single billionaire's holdings, cash flows and expansion pipeline in detail no public source matches.
→ Executive ($25/mo): Daily newsletter + Deep-Dive Reports
→ Elite ($75/mo): Everything above + Investor Memos + Wealth Intelligence + Quarterly Analyst Briefings
Subscribe now
