The first multinational oil company to be quoted in the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), Total Kenya Ltd, has legally changed its name to Total Kenya Plc. This comes after it finished legal changes to its company’s status and started operating as a Public Limited Company.
The bourse-listed company, in a notice to its shareholders, said, “We hereby inform our customers, business partners and general public that following approval by the company’s shareholders at the Annual General Meeting held on 16th June 2017, we have effective 23rd June 2017 changed our name from ‘Total Kenya Ltd” to ‘Total Kenya Plc.” in line with the requirements of the Companies Act 2015.”
However, this is not the first time the company has changed its name. It was first registered in Kenya as OZO East Africa Petroleum Company Limited on June 13th, 1955 but started its operations on 1959. On January 1st, 1963 the company changed its name from OZO East Africa Limited to Total Oil Products East Africa Limited. 25years after changing its name to Total Oil Products East Africa, the company held its first Initial Public Offering, making it the first company in the oil and gas sector to be quoted in the NSE.
The name of the company changed once more in 1991 to Total Kenya Limited before turning to Total Kenya Plc. after its status change. Total Kenya Plc. is a part of Total Group, which is among the largest publicly, traded integrated international oil and gas company in the world.
The change of the name comes after the company in 2016 made an acquisition of Gulf Africa Petroleum Corporation’s (Gapco) assets. The principal assets acquired included two logistics terminals in Mombasa, Kenya and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania as well as a retail network of more than a hundred service stations in Eastern Africa. This saw the company strengthen its logistics in the region and significantly accelerate the growth of its retail network as well.
