Amsons Group, the Tanzanian conglomerate led by managing director Edha Nahdi, has agreed to acquire the Tanzania downstream business of Geneva based Oryx Energies in a transaction worth more than 230 million dollars, the companies said. The perimeter covers Oryx’s bulk storage terminals, retail service stations and distribution infrastructure in Tanzania, including its equity interest in Tanzania International Petroleum Reserves, known as TIPER, one of East Africa’s largest fuel storage terminals in Dar es Salaam.
The operating effect is scale. Amsons says the deal lifts its fuel storage capacity from 300,000 metric tonnes to 800,000 metric tonnes and takes its retail network to about 300 service stations across several countries. Oryx has operated in Tanzania since 1999 across fuel imports, storage, distribution, lubricants and liquefied petroleum gas.
For Oryx, chief executive Moussa Diao framed the sale as portfolio optimisation: the group is focusing capital on energy infrastructure development across Africa and on its trading activities. The sale follows the reported management buyout of Oryx Energies itself for about 1 billion dollars, covered in the October 10 edition, so the new owners are now reshaping the group by selling a national downstream network to a local champion.
Completion remains subject to regulatory approvals and other customary conditions, and Oryx continues to operate the business as usual until closing. Amsons has been expanding on the same logic in cement, with the Mbeya Cement acquisition in Tanzania and buyout offers involving Bamburi Cement and East African Portland Cement in Kenya, and has announced a 1,000 megawatt solar investment in Zambia.