Business
Profile: Mike Adenuga
In March this year, Forbes published its annual rankings of the world’s richest people. Mike Adenuga, who debuted on the list, was ranked as the second richest Nigerian, with a net worth of $2 billion, while Nigerian Aliko Dangote was valued at $13.8 billion.
But shortly after the list was published, controversy erupted in Nigerian media circles. Several Nigerian analysts and Adenuga’s staff refuted our valuation.
The annual Forbes rankings of the world’s richest, prefers to be conservative in their estimates. They would rather be too low than too high. When working on the 2011 list of the world’s richest, a Forbes reporter tried to reach Dr. Adenuga’s representatives to verify his assets, but Adenuga, a chronically reclusive tycoon, did not respond. As a result, their valuation of Adenuga was based solely on his stake in his telecom company Globacom Holding, which at the time was worth $2 billion.
However, fresh findings from a variety of sources including staff from some of his offices, the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission and analysis from professionals in the energy and telecommunication sectors indicate that the reclusive telecommunications and energy tycoon is easily worth more than $2 billion, and depending upon who you talk to, could be richer than Aliko Dangote, last worth $13.8 billion.
Apart from his 74% stake in Conoil PLC, a Nigerian-listed oil marketing firm he founded (the stake is held through ConPetro Limited, a holding company he fully owns) and his holding in Equitorial Trust Bank, Adenuga owns 100% equity in all his other businesses. Of those, the major assets include Conoil Producing, Nigeria’s largest indigenous oil exploration and production company, which operates six producing oil blocks and holds a 25% stake in Joint Development Zone Block 4, an oil prospecting license which has proven reserves of close to 1 billion barrels of oil and close to a trillion cubic feet of gas.
According to sources at Conoil Producing, the company produces 100,000 barrels of oil per day – much more than any other indigenous exploration firm in the country. In April, Adenuga spent $650 million acquiring Shell’s stake in Oil Mining License (OML) 30, Shell’s most profitable onshore oil block in Nigeria, which is located in the western swamps of the Niger Delta. Adenuga currently controls total equity of Conoil Producing, which analysts estimate could be worth as much as $10 billion.
Among his other assets: mobile telecom firms Globacom Holding and Globacom West Africa, two distinct companies with a combined subscriber base in excess of 30 million people and operations in Nigeria, Ghana, and Benin. Adenuga also single-handedly owns Globacom – at least on paper.
Adenuga also owns equity in Equitorial Trust Bank, one of the few privately-held commercial banks in the country. Adenuga also owns extensive real estate holdings in some of Nigeria’s most expensive neighborhoods, including the Mike Adenuga Towers, a landmark building in Victoria Island, Lagos. He also owns property in Banana Island – Nigeria’s most expensive neighborhood – and several other properties in Abuja, London, the U.S and Dubai.
Tracking down Adenuga’s net worth is tough work, involving intensive research, series of meetings, conversations and consultations with analysts, journalists, and Adenuga employees. Adenuga himself, continually refuses to talk. Speculation is rife in Nigeria, that Adenuga might be a front for Nigeria’s former military president, Ibrahim Babangida. However, Adenuga’s people have denied a business relationship between their boss and the former Nigerian ruler.
Who is Mike Adenuga?
Mike Adenuga was born on April 29, 1953 in Ibadan, Nigeria. His father, Chief Mike Adenuga Senior was a school teacher and the mother, Chief Mrs. Onyindamola Adenuga was a businesswoman in Ibadan. Mike grew up under the great influence of his mother and some observers have traced his business acumen to his late mother.
Adenuga attended Ibadan Grammar School, obtained a degree in business administration from Northwestern Oklahoma State University, in Alva, Oklahoma, and an MBA, majoring in marketing from Pace University, New York. He also has an honorary doctorate degree from the Olabisi Onabanjo University, In Nigeria. While studying in the United States of America, Mike Adenuga worked as a cab driver and security guard to pay his tuition fees.
The beginings of a business Empire
On completion of his studies in the United States, he took over the running of his father’s sawmill business. Adenuga later ventured into commodity trading in the 1970s and at the age of 26, he made his first million dollars.
After the liberalization of the banking sector in the late 1980s by the Nigerian government, Adenuga obtained a banking license and incorporated his bank, Devcom Bank. Adenuga later obtained another banking license and incorporated Equatorial Trust Bank. Few years later, both banks later merged and still maintained the name ‘Equatorial Trust Bank’.
Adenuga also acquired some oil blocks in the late 1980s and Consolidated Oil (Conoil) was born. Back in those days, indigenous (Nigerian) firms shied away from the risk of oil exploration. Adenuga followed his instincts and explored for oil. He successfully stuck oil in 1991 and became a major player in the oil and gas sector.
In 1998, Adenuga decided to expand his business empire by obtaining a mobile telephony (GSM) license. After obtaining the license and entering into strategic partnership with Alcatel, the new government cancelled all GSM licenses issued out, claiming that due process had been followed in the original issuance of the licences.
The cancellation of the license did not stop Adenuga.
He bid again and won a second GSM license. Adenuga’s love for his business and his firm belief that business and politics do not mix incurred the wrath of the government. The result was the cancellation of his second GSM license.
He admits that the cancellation of his second GSM license was one of the most trying periods of his life. Down but not out, Adenuga kept hope alive and pressed on. With the law on his side he regained his GSM license. With his GSM license back, Mike Adenuga founded the second national telecom operator, Globacom Communications.
In its first year of operation, Glo Mobile became the fastest growing GSM network in Africa, achieving a record one million subscribers and covering over 87 towns in just nine months. The network has extended to other parts of Africa and is seeking to connect other parts of the world soon. The company in 2007 won the National Operator of the Year while Glo Mobile received the Mobile Company of the Year.
Mike Adenuga is a holder of the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON); he was awarded CEO of the year by Thisday in 2004; named African Entrepreneur of The Year at the maiden African Telecoms Awards (ATA) in 2007.
Sources: Forbes, The Habari Network