Ololade Adeyanju/
Japaul Oil & Maritime Services Plc has changed its name to Japaul Gold and Ventures Plc as it announces new interests at its 15th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Lagos today.
During the event at Japaul House, Alausa, Ikeja, shareholders approved the new name and business focus shifting from Oil and Gas servicing sector into natural resource management, specifically the exploration, mining, processing and export of minerals, such as gold and lithium among others.
The presentation of the Company’s 2018/2019 financial year, the change of name and voting by shareholders was also streamed live on YouTube.
The Chairman, Mr Paul Jegede, revealed that with the constant change and decline in the oil and gas climate, Japaul has remained committed and proactive in its efforts to bring value to its shareholders which necessitated the diversification from the company’s core business as it believes these natural resources are a viable substitute for oil, as necessitated by oil prices which have been nosediving even before the COVID-19 pandemic. He noted that the mining of these natural resources is not only profitable, “it is without any negative impact on the environment”.
Already, Japaul, a three-time Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) award winner has acquired mining and exploration licenses through buy-overs for the exploration, mining and exportation of gold, lithium, copper, tin, lead and zinc across seven states in Nigeria where strategic minerals have been discovered in commercial quantities and reserves. The company has also started a kickoff of landmark restructuring and transitioning to become Nigeria’s first indigenous publicly quoted company in that space.
Mr Jegede said at the AGM, “Since the diversification, Japaul’s finances have yielded positive financial outlook for the company and its shareholders. For instance, from our 2018 financial year, N7.4billion turned to N40billion profit in 2019; the shareholders fund turned from N35billion negative to N4.6billion in 2019 financial year end while earning per share turned from N105 negative in 2018 to positive N653 in 2019.”
Japaul’s shareholders passed the resolution to reconstruct all existing ordinary shares of six billion and/or increase in authorized share capital to 60,000,000,000 shares and subsequent public offering through combination of book building and/or public offer to raise $70million naira equivalent through all possible legitimate means to finance the completion of expanded explorations, mining activities, mineral processing, export, engineering design, procurement, installation of a Gold processing plant and working capital, amongst others.
According to the Group Managing Director, Mr Akin Oladapo, the diversification is as a result of the company’s five-year growth forecast.
He said, “We had the foresight that the situation of the oil and gas sector would not improve for a long time, which is the case today. We started training ourselves in mining related businesses and the rest is history. We have bought mining and exploration licenses for Gold, Lithium, Lead, Copper, Tin, Zinc etc., which our company will be working with.
“We already have Canadian expatriates that have been doing explorations works for us – MATRIX GEOTECH in Toronto, Canada. Our strategy is to start mining gold as from 2021 to 2022 while exploration works continue on other licenses that we have.”
Participants at the event agreed that with the new business focus, Japaul Gold and Ventures Plc is already positioned strategically for the supply of the Oil of tomorrow to international markets which have unlimited demand as the world makes a more mineral-intensive transition from fossil fuel to low-emission energy and from the industrial revolution era to the use of more advanced technologies.
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