Tanzanian billionaire Edha Nahdi's Amsons Group buys Oryx's Tanzania fuel business for $230 million

Amsons Group, the Tanzanian conglomerate run by tycoon Edha Nahdi, has bought the Tanzanian fuel business of Geneva-based Oryx Energies in a deal worth about $230 million, adding storage terminals, filling stations and a stake in one of East Africa's largest fuel depots.

The acquisition gives Amsons control of the downstream operations Oryx built in Tanzania, including its bulk storage terminals, its retail service stations and its equity interest in Tanzania International Petroleum Reserves Ltd., known as TIPER, a major fuel storage terminal in Dar es Salaam, Amsons said in a statement.

The deal will lift Amsons' fuel storage capacity to 800,000 metric tons from 300,000 tons and take its retail network to about 300 stations across several countries, the company said.

"We are delighted to finalize this acquisition, which marks a transformative step in our strategic vision to expand Amsons Group's footprint in energy and logistics," said Nahdi, the group's managing director. Oryx's distribution network and storage capacity would allow Amsons "to strengthen domestic fuel security" and to "anchor Tanzania as a vital regional logistics hub for East and Central Africa," he said.

The price is lower than the roughly $250 million that the two sides were said to be discussing when talks were first reported in May.

Why Oryx is selling

Moussa Diao, Oryx's chief executive, said the sale fits the company's "strategic portfolio optimization across the African continent."

"Over the decades, Oryx Energies has built a robust and resilient energy infrastructure in Tanzania," Diao said. "We are confident that Amsons Group, with its strong local footing, industrial capacity, and commitment to domestic growth, is exceptionally well-positioned to drive the next chapter of expansion for this network."

The sale comes days after Diao and Hervé Bouvet, Oryx's trading manager, agreed to buy a majority stake in the company from its founder, Swiss businessman Jean Claude Gandur, in a management buyout that values Oryx at about $1 billion. Oryx says it operates in more than 30 African countries and has established businesses in 17. Its largest markets are in West Africa, including Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin and Togo.

In Tanzania, Oryx has been a major supplier of fuel, lubricants and liquefied petroleum gas. Its share of the country's cooking gas market fell to 35.2% from 46.6% in 2020, according to the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority. TIPER, in Kigamboni across the harbor from Dar es Salaam's main port, began life as a refinery in the 1960s and was turned into a storage depot after refining stopped in 2000. Oryx has owned half of it, with the Tanzanian government holding the other half.

A run of acquisitions

The Oryx purchase is the latest in a series of large deals that have turned Amsons from a Tanzanian fuel trader into one of East Africa's most acquisitive private companies.

Nahdi started Camel Oil, the fuel business that grew into Amsons, in 2006 at the age of 19. The group now operates in petroleum, cement, wheat milling, logistics, container depots and real estate in countries including Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It moved into cement by buying Mbeya Cement in southern Tanzania. In December 2024, it took control of Kenya's Bamburi Cement, buying more than 95% of the Nairobi-listed company from Swiss building materials group Holcim and other shareholders for about 23.1 billion Kenyan shillings, or about $180 million at the time. In November 2025, its subsidiary Kalahari Cement bought a 29.2% stake in East African Portland Cement from Holcim, which together with the shares Bamburi already held made Amsons the largest shareholder in Kenya's state-linked cement maker with 41.75%. Kenyan lawmakers objected to that deal.

A month later, Amsons signed an agreement with Lusaka-based Exergy Africa to develop up to 1,300 megawatts of power projects in Zambia, worth about $900 million. Nahdi has also pledged $35 million to build 10 mother-and-child hospitals in Kenya.

Amsons does not publish its accounts, and Nahdi has dismissed media descriptions of his wealth as exaggerated.

The Oryx terminals add to Amsons' storage at Dar es Salaam, a main entry point for fuel bound for landlocked neighbors including Zambia, Malawi, Burundi and eastern Congo.