Japaul Nigeria to receive $350-million funding from Milost

Milost will invest $250 million in equity and add another $100 million in convertible loans, Japaul Chairman Jegede Paul said in a phone interview on Tuesday from Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. The fresh injection of capital will enable the company to fix grounded vessels, finance new contracts and expand into mining, he said.

Two calls to numbers listed by New York-based Milost Global on its website for comment went unanswered on Tuesday.

Japaul’s oil and gas operations suffered a setback with the 2014 plunge in crude prices, which forced exploration and production companies to scale back their activities. As prices are recovering, the company wants to take advantage of new business opportunities in the industry. The company plans to be able to absorb future oil and gas price shocks by diversifying into mining, Paul said.

The stock jumped 6% in Wednesday’s trading at the Nigerian Stock Exchange in Lagos, the most since June 25, 2014, to close at 0.37 naira.