Austin Avuru, Nigerian geologist, Entrepreneur, and the much respected cofounder and former Chief Executive Officer of Seplat Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), graced an interview by the Afropolitan Podcast recently, and it turned out to be a masterclass on Entrepreneurship, Business, Life, Legacy, and Philanthropy. It is one of those podcasts you have to listen to repeatedly to ensure not to miss the tiniest detail, as almost every sentence from him was an eureka experience. Austin spent over 40 years in the Nigerian oil and gas sector and was Managing Director of Platform Petroleum Limited and in 2010 became the pioneer CEO of Seplat Ltd, a company he co-founded. Under his leadership, Seplat was dually listed on the London Stock Exchange and Nigeria Stock Exchange, a massive feat that has scarcely been matched ever since. He retired as CEO of Seplat in 2020 and remains on the Board. He is also the Chairman of AA Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to creatin...
How Femi Otedola’s X (Twitter) Strategy Is Driving First Holdco’s Share Price and Investor Confidence
NIGERIA: Mr Olufemi Otedola, the Group Chairman of First Holdco PLC seems to have adopted Elon Musk's style of transparent Investor communication with his recent use of X (formerly Twitter), communicating his thoughts about the company and its strategy directly to the investing public, more or less taking up the role of "Chief Investor Relations Officer" of the company, and taking the lead to explain and "sell" the company's strategy and activities to investors. With this move, he might just be connecting more with Millennial and Gen Z investors, getting them more interested in the First Holdco story and to invest in it, which could lead to a big pay day for him (through share price appreciation) when he eventually decides to divest or sell down his stake (if his investment antecedent is anything to go by- Forte Oil, Geregu PLC). Already, looking at some of the replies to his tweets shows that these generations of investors are progressively showing intere...