The Founder and CEO of ZEN Petroleum Limited, William Tewiah has revealed that the company plans to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).
According to Mr Tewiah, the company reached this decision after carefully weighing the advantages and disadvantages of becoming a public company.
“There were a lot of internal discussions as to the pros and cons of us listing,” he said. “We have always set out to run a trans-generational business, be around for a long time, long after I have gone. So, listing on GSE, opening up shares for others to participate, makes you a true Ghanaian company.”
“It reinforces the discipline we have had all along, which is discipline with compliance, corporate governance.”
He explained that the company first raised funds through a private placement involving institutional investors.
This approach brought in more money than they initially expected.
“It was a private placement by institutions. It was pretty much spoken about before we opened up to the public as required. We ended up raising more, close to a billion. More than we needed,” he said.
Mr Tewiah also mentioned that the company has decided to hold on to part of its shares for now.
However, it plans to introduce a scheme that will allow employees to own shares and later release more shares to the public over time.
“We decided to stay for the 20% for now, to be followed by an employee share ownership scheme. The intention is to float more shares. Ultimately, to bring my personal holding to 50%. There’s a lot of interest, and people do appreciate companies that try to do the right thing. The interest is overwhelming,” he noted.
He further highlighted the company’s commitment to fair pricing across the country.
He said ZEN Petroleum ensures that customers everywhere enjoy the same prices, not just in certain regions.
“We always set out to do the best we can in every possible way. We offer competitive prices, which is something we started doing years ago. We believe that the end consumer deserves the best price possible.
“So, we have always sold out at the best price possible for us in a sustainable way. We have always maintained that our prices need to be uniform across our networks, not just certain parts of the country,” he added.
He shared this during an interview on Channel One TV on Wednesday, April 22.
