Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Heirs Holdings, has acquired an additional six million shares in Seplat Energy Plc for £53.2 million, further expanding his stake in the oil and gas company ahead of his planned appointment as its board chairman.
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The purchase was disclosed in a notification filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Wednesday, which stated that the shares were bought by Heirs Energies Limited, a company controlled by Elumelu, in a transaction conducted in London on September 30, 2026.
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According to the filing, the shares were acquired at £8.87 each, bringing Heirs Energies’ direct holding in Seplat to 27,943,867 shares. Combined with shares held through Heirs Holdings Limited, also controlled by Elumelu, the two entities now jointly hold 126.4 million shares in Seplat, representing a 21.07 percent voting interest based on the company’s 599,944,561 issued shares. The filing noted that the transaction was disclosed in line with NGX disclosure rules on dealings in issuers’ shares, as well as UK market abuse regulations, given the London-based nature of the trade.
The latest acquisition builds on a 120.4 million-share purchase Heirs Energies and Heirs Holdings made from Maurel & Prom in December 2025, which first established Elumelu’s sizeable position in the company. He joined Seplat’s board as a non-executive director in January 2026, and the company announced in June that its current chairman, Udoma Udo Udoma, would retire at the end of December 2026, with Elumelu set to succeed him from January 1, 2027.
The timing of this latest share buy, coming just months before Elumelu formally takes over as chairman, points to a deliberate consolidation of his voting position within the company ahead of that transition, though the filing itself does not state an explicit rationale beyond the standard regulatory disclosure. As with any such filing, it confirms the transaction and resulting shareholding but does not speak to Elumelu’s broader strategic intentions for Seplat once he assumes the chairmanship.
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