Steel magnet Lakshmi N Mittal has paid over $10 million to double his stake in Africa- focused Ophir Energy Plc to 21.2 per cent, even as he exited the oil and gas business in the Central Asian nation Kazakhstan.
“We would like to confirm that we recently doubled our investment in this (Ophir Energy) company,” said Sudhir Maheshwari, Managing Director of Mittal Investment Sarl, the holding company of Mittal family interest.
He, however, refused to divulge financial details, saying both Mittal Investment and Ophir were private companies.
Industry sources said Mittal Investment had in May 2008 agreed to buy 47 million shares in Ophir Energy at 250 pence a share in two tranches.
In the first tranche, it bought 21.1 million shares for $105.3 million in May 2008 and recently it subscribed to the second trance of 26,421,790 new shares for about $113 million to double its stake to 21.2 per cent. Established in 2004, Ophir is an independent oil and gas exploration company with a diversified exploration portfolio encompasing 16 projects in 8 different African jurisdictions.
With this, Mittal Investment has become the largest shareholder in Ophir Energy, overtaking its Mvelaphanda Holdings Pty Ltd, the South African industrial and resources conglomerate .
