For those in the know, Helios has just entered one-chance in the deal where Oando is selling its 'downstream' "assets" to gullible Helios.

It's assumed that in a sale & purchase agreement, the buyer would have carried out a due diligence on the purported assets of the sellers and confirm the validity/viability of those assets.

It's open secret that Oando has been looking for so long to find the sucker who would buy the so-called assets of its downstream end of its business when it's the so-called assets & shareholders funds that created its upstream biz. It's not surprising that the deal would be so ridiculously priced. Surprisingly, the upstream companies are privately owned and not quoted. For Oando and its longest serving GMD/CEO in Nigerian Corporate history, still smarting from the Conoco-Phillips ill-timed acquisition, whatever crumbs that can be got from the shell of the downstream venture is still better than none.

How Helios will deal with aggrieved shareholders (not the compromised shareholders associations) remains to be seen as well when Helios realises that the juicy bits of the 'downstream' biz have been long sold off or outsourced to companies owned by you-know-who, directly or indirectly.

This is the classic one-chance! Later developments will show how true that is.

Ftc