The year-to-date loss in the shares of Afriquia Gaz, a Moroccan firm owned in part by billionaire businessman Aziz Akhannouch, has resulted in a $152.5-million drop in the firm’s market value, as hesitant investors sell down stakes in the oil and gas group despite delivering an impressive financial performance at the end of 2021.
This market action resulted in a million-dollar drop in the stake of Akhannouch, Morocco’s prime minister and a leading businessman who owns a sizable stake in the diversified investment group.
Since the start of the year, the market value of his stake has dropped by more than $45 million, as wary investors sold off stakes in the Morocco-based oil and gas group.
The drop in the value of his stake can be directly attributed to an 8.3-percentage drop in Afriquia Gaz’s share price, which fell from MAD5,300 ($534.56) per share at the start of trading this year to MAD4,860 ($490.18) at the time of writing this report.
The market value of Akhannouch’s 30-percent stake in Afriquia Gaz has declined from MAD5.47 billion ($551.26 million) to MAD 5.01 billion ($505.5 million) as a result of the group’s share price movement on the Casablanca bourse.
This equates to a total loss of MAD453.75 million ($45.76 million) for the Moroccan businessman since the year began.
Despite the impact of the loss on the value of his stake and his net worth, Akhannouch remains one of the richest investors on the Casablanca bourse and one of Morocco’s richest businessmen.
In recent times, Morocco’s soaring fuel prices have put the billionaire petrol magnate, who also happens to be the country’s prime minister, at the center of an ongoing debate about a conflict of interests between business and politics.
For the first time since the Ukraine war caused a global spike in crude prices, Akhannouch explained to parliament last week that developments on the global market played a key role in the recent rise at the pump to a record $1.46 per liter of unleaded fuel.
As a result, filling a car’s tank would consume a significant portion of one’s income, despite the fact that the minimum monthly wage in Morocco is only $280. This reality, however, creates significant opportunities for oil and gas companies to create wealth for their shareholders.
Afriquia Gaz’s revenue at the end of 2021 was MAD7.15 billion ($720.2 million), up from MAD5.52 billion ($556.2 million) at the end of December 2020, a 29.6-percent increase explained primarily by an increase in the price of energy products.
