KEY POINTS
- Heirs Energies Seplat stake gained about $186.6 million.
- Seplat shares rose from 305 pence to 420 pence.
- Stake gives Heirs Energies strategic exposure to listed producer
Heirs Energies has recorded an estimated $186.6 million paper gain on its Seplat stake less than two months after acquiring a 20.07 percent holding in the London- and Lagos-listed energy company.
The gain reflects Seplat’s share price rising to 420 pence from the 305 pence paid in a Dec. 30, 2025 transaction with France’s Etablissements Maurel and Prom. Heirs Energies bought 120.4 million shares in a deal valued at $496 million.
At the current price, the 115 pence increase per share translates into a paper profit of about £138.46 million, or roughly $186.6 million.
Heirs Energies Seplat stake gains
The appreciation comes as Seplat consolidates its position following its acquisition of ExxonMobil’s Nigerian shallow-water assets in December 2024. The expansion lifted Seplat into a higher production tier and broadened its offshore footprint.
In 2025, Seplat outlined plans to spend up to $320 million and target crude output of about 140,000 barrels per day. The company reported average production of 134,492 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first half of 2025 and 135,636 boepd for the first nine months.
That growth narrative has also underpinned investor interest and helped drive the share price higher, amplifying the value of the Heirs Energies Seplat stake.
Strategic bet beyond paper gain
Heirs Energies, controlled by banker Tony Elumelu, built its upstream platform around OML 17 in the Niger Delta, where it acquired a 45 percent interest in 2021 in a transaction backed by $1.1 billion in financing. The company says output at the joint venture has risen to more than 50,000 barrels per day, alongside gas production of about 120 million cubic feet per day.
Days before the Seplat purchase, Heirs Energies signed a $750 million reserve-based lending facility with Afreximbank to support field development and liquidity. The company has further said the Seplat acquisition was funded largely from Heirs Holdings’ cash reserves.
Elumelu joined Seplat’s board as a non-executive director effective Jan. 22, 2026, fueling speculation about deeper strategic ties. While merger talk persists, differences in ownership structure, governance and financing models complicate any combination.
According to Billionaires Africa, the Heirs Energies Seplat stake positions the private Nigerian producer at the center of a sector reshaped by asset sales from international majors and the rise of indigenous operators.
