Seplat Energy Plc has said the sale and purchase agreement to acquire the entire share capital belonging to Mobil Producing Unlimited, Nigeria for $1.28 million, plus up to $300 million contingent consideration, was still awaiting presidential approval.

Its Chief Executive Officer, Roger Brown, made the announcement while commenting on its audited results for 2022, which recorded a rise in profit before tax by 15 per cent to N87bn from N71bn year-on-year.

According to Brown, the company hopes to conclude the transaction before the end of the current administration.

“We are continuing to pursue the presidential approval received on August 8, 2022, for the MPNU acquisition and we remain focused on concluding the transaction within the remaining term of President Buhari before a new president is sworn into office at the end of May 2023,” Brown noted.

The company said it also generated cash from its operations to the tune of N242.4bn from N150.9bn year-on-year, rising by 52 per cent, while growing revenue by 30 per cent to N404bn from N294bn in 2021 and gross profit soaring by 63 per cent to N197bn from N114bn year-on-year.

Seplat Energy said it would be paying a US7.5 cent final dividend, despite the significantly disrupted production experienced in the second half of the year.

This amounts to a full-year dividend of US15 cents, representing a dividend yield of around 11 per cent at the current London Stock Exchange share price.

In its operations, Seplat Energy’s working interest production averaged 44 kboepd, impacted by outages of key infrastructure predominantly in Q3. Use of the Amukpe-Escravos Pipeline enabled high uptime in December, an exit rate of 53 kboepd.

The company said it completed 13 wells including two wells for the ANOH gas processing plant. ANOH Gas Processing Plant is 95 per cent mechanically complete, awaiting third-party infrastructure completion.