Nigerian tycoon Aderemi Makanjuola's Caverton rebounds 10% after 36% slide

Shares of Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc, the Nigerian helicopter and marine services company controlled by aviation tycoon Aderemi Makanjuola, rebounded almost 10% on Wednesday after a selloff that wiped out more than a third of their value in seven trading days.

The stock rose 9.84% to ₦3.35 on the Nigerian Exchange, one of the day's biggest gains, a day after it fell 7.58% to ₦3.05. Caverton had closed at ₦4.80 on Oct. 23, and Tuesday's price left it 36% below that level.

Makanjuola and his family own 2,471,271,244 Caverton shares, or about three-quarters of the company. At Wednesday's close, the stake is worth about ₦8.28 billion ($6.1 million). Wednesday's rise added about ₦741 million ($543,000) to its value, but the holding is still ₦3.58 billion ($2.6 million) below its worth on Oct. 23. It is also about ₦618 million ($453,000) lower than on Oct. 30, when the shares closed at ₦3.60 after the company reported its nine-month results.

A business in transition

Caverton lost ₦13.79 billion ($10.1 million) after tax in the nine months to Sept. 30, compared with ₦4.63 billion a year earlier, as revenue edged up 1.4% to ₦20.74 billion ($15.2 million). The company said the wider loss mainly reflected ₦5.9 billion of depreciation, which does not involve cash, after it revalued its assets last year, along with the absence of a ₦5.3 billion one-time gain booked in 2025. Net finance costs fell 16% as interest rates eased, while interest-bearing borrowings stood at ₦81.55 billion ($59.7 million) at the end of September.

Its marine business now brings in almost a third of group revenue, up from almost nothing a year ago, and has more than replaced the income lost when a major helicopter contract ended in August 2025. The company is also restructuring its debt and is in talks with possible strategic partners about investing in its aviation business.

"Caverton is in transition. A year ago our marine business barely registered in our accounts," Group Chief Executive Officer Olabode Makanjuola said.

Aderemi Makanjuola, a former banker and economist, founded Caverton in the early 2000s to give Nigeria a locally owned provider of helicopter services for the oil and gas industry. The group flies crews to offshore platforms, runs marine logistics and aircraft maintenance, and operates a flight simulator training centre in Lagos.

Figures were converted at ₦1,365 to the dollar.