Malta-based company announces US$400 million investment in Africa

Malta-based Addax & Oryx Group Ltd, which has offices in Geneva, is investing US$400 million over five to six years in downstream energy infrastructure and networks, in a bid to refocus the business away from a Swiss oil trading unit dwarfed by competitors, Jean Claude Gandur said.

"Either you belong to the three or four very large trading companies and you concentrate on your trading activity, or you better find a new model, and that's what I'm developing today," he said in a phone interview from Geneva. "It's more downstream than trading."

Gandur worked in the Zug, Switzerland, office of Philipp Brothers before setting up a Geneva oil-trading firm named after two types of African antelope, the addax and oryx.

The largest independent energy traders, including Glencore International Plc, Vitol Group and Trafigura Beheer BV, all have offices in Switzerland.

AOG is investing in liquefied petroleum gas networks in Africa to add to four terminals, two lubricants factories and fuel stations across 22 countries, according to Gandur.

He expects the LPG market to grow 12 to 15 percent a year in Tanzania and 10 to 15 percent a year in Ivory Coast.

The fuel reduces societies' dependency on charcoal and restricts deforestation, he said.

AOG, which also has businesses in upstream energy and real estate, said in May it wouldn't pursue the sale of its Geneva trading unit and African downstream oil and gas unit after the expiration of an exclusivity agreement with Emerging Capital Partners, a Washington-based investment firm focused on Africa.

Gandur, who lives in London and has a personal fortune of about US$2 billion, according to Forbes, said he terminated the process because the buyer was too slow to complete the deal. AOG is closely held and doesn't provide detailed information on the size of its energy businesses.

After selling Addax Petroleum Corp., an exploration and production unit, to China's Sinopec Group for US$8.3 billion in 2009, AOG plans to sell shares to the public in another upstream business, Oryx Petroleum, on the Toronto stock exchange this year, Gandur said. It's hired RBC Capital Markets to advise on the process.

AOG has spent US$450 million on real estate in cities including Geneva, London and New York and plans to invest another US$300 million, Gandur said. The commercial property and retail acquisitions are long-term investments to provide an income for philanthropic activities, he said.