Integrated energy trader, Oando Nigeria Plc has come under a comprehensive investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Channels Television gathered that the securities commission conducted several weeks of investigations, upon which the board and management of Oando Nigeria have been written a formal letter to explain matters relating to observed malpractices in the company’s financial statements.

Sources add that the SEC investigations follow petitions filed by some foreign investors in Oando Nigeria Plc, in relation to its shareholding structure after the 1.65 billion U.S. dollars cash that Oando paid in June 2014 to acquire the oil production assets of Conoco-Phillips in Nigeria.

Oando is listed on both the Nigeria and South Africa Stock Exchanges with shares of its subsidiary – Oando Energy Resources listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange but de-listed in 2016.

In a statement released on Friday, Oando Nigeria Plc described the investigation as being based on defamatory claims.

The company however, noted that it is co-operating fully with the regulatory body in the discharge of its duties.

“The company understands that the SEC is in receipt of correspondence containing (in our opinion) unsubstantiated, misleading and defamatory claims with respect to various matters that had already received board, shareholder and where required SEC approval.

“The Company is fully co-operating with the SEC in the discharge of its duties as the capital markets regulator by providing all appropriate clarifications and rebuttals on the matters raised in the said correspondence. Oando will be happy to provide full disclosure of the outcome as soon as the SEC review is completed.”

•Text courtesy of Channels TV.