Femi Otedola loses $1.3 billion and falls out of Forbes Billionaire's list

Nigerian businessman Femi Otedola has fallen out of the ranking of Africa’s Billionaires after his net worth plunged from $1.8 billion to $550 million as a result of a massive drop in the stock price of his petroleum marketing company, Forte Oil.

According to FORBES, Forte Oil’s share price was at N145 ($o.44) per share down from an all time high of N342 ($1.1) in March 2016.

Otedola’s fortune was also affected by the devaluation of the Naira in June by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

According to FORBES’ billionaires’ database, Otedola is now worth only $550 million.

“Investors are dumping Forte Oil’s shares as a result of wide-spread disappointing results of Nigerian Companies of which Forte Oil Plc is also not immune. The company’s profit after tax was down at N2.80 billion ($8.8 million) for the third quarter ended Sept 30 2016 as against N4.28 billion ($13.5 million) for the same period in 2015.

Sources also attribute the results to reduced demand for energy consumption as a result of the recently increased pump price which has adversely affected the fortunes of oil marketing companies in Nigeria.

With a fortune now pegged at only $550 million, Otedola falls out of the ranking of Africa’s billionaires,” FORBES’ report added.