Petro Ivoire

Incorporated in 1994 with a capital of 110 million CFA, Petro Ivoire, SA is a public limited company engaged in the distribution of oil products and gas. Its products consist of oil, diesel fuel, and gas, including aviation fuel, bitumen, lubricants, and other oil products. With a network of 28 service stations distributed throughout the country, Petro Ivoire is the leading Ivorian private distributor of oil products and by-products.

The oil distribution sector in Côte d’Ivoire consists of two main groups of operators: the Groupement Professionnel des Entreprises du Pétrole (GPP), which includes the five major marketers and holds approximately 85% of market share, and independent operators, such as Petro Ivoire. While Petro Ivoire has a moderate market share, it ranks as the third largest company behind oil distribution giants Shell and Total.

Gas is bottled at Petro Ivoire’s own facilities in a filling centre with a storage capacity of 225 tonnes. Gas production increased from 50 ton per day in 2009 to 80 tons per in 2010, with plans to reach 90 ton per day by the end early 2012.

Petro Ivoire continues to demonstrate exceptional growth. While the national volume distributed in 2010 by GPP dropped by 1.1% from 2009, Petro Ivoire increased its turnover by 8% in the same period. Similarly, the volume of gas marketed by Petro Ivoire increased by 44% in 2010 over the previous year.

Petro Ivoire’s goal is to become the best and largest distributor of oil and gas products in Cote d’Ivoire, displacing Shell and Total. To accomplish that goal, Mathieu Kadio-Morokro, President of Petro Ivoire has ambitious plans, which he outlines as follows:

“In the short term, we are to open new gas stations. One will be ready to open in just a few days. We are also working on a new look for our stations, with new colours, a new logo – an entirely new image. Our challenge is for the Côte d’Ivoire to have the same standards as the world’s top companies such as Total and Shell.

We have launched our own branded lubricants, and we have signed an agreement with Shell to be able to use Sifal’s blending. We have recruited a lubricant engineer in order to enhance our products and profitability.

In the mid-term, we want to launch through a new branch that we have just created (Société Africaine d’Entreposage des Produits Pétroliers) a new LPG terminal [and] we are hoping to inaugurate by the end of this year a new storage facility of 1500 tons of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). We also plan to double the productivity of our bottling center.

Currently, we have 28 gas stations…. We hope to launch 5 to 6 other new stations in 2012-2013. We will then have 34 stations after 19 years of activity, which is quite satisfying.”

Further, Mr. Morokro hopes to increase the rate of growth dramatically.

“We are hoping to grow by 15-20% thanks to investments. It is optimistic, but when we look at our numbers and results, it seems reasonable; with all our recent investment, I think we will reach 20% quite easily. The gas sector has a lot of potential for growth, and particularly products like gasoline and lubricants.”

Open to Investment and Partners

Based on its track record and proven dynamism, Petro Ivoire still has great plans to grow, and is looking for investors and partners. “We welcome investors that have the necessary expertise and financial means,” says Kadio-Morokro: “We are ready to consider all forms of partnership.”

Kadio-Morokro explains what Petro Ivoire is looking for. 

We have ourselves invested 6 billion CFA francs (abou 10 million euros) on gas storage and our  gas terminal with a capacity of 1500 tons. We have plans to create another storage space of 1500 tons as soon as this one is ready at the end of this year. As you can see, we have projects, we are ambitious – all we need now is international partners with expertise.

The Story of Petro Ivoire: “Some day I want to be my own boss”

In 1971, as a young chemical Engineer the founder of Petro Ivoire, Mathieu Kadio-Morokro joined Shell Ivory Coast as a commercial attaché. There he advanced rapidly until becoming general manager of Parsifal, an Ivory Coast lubricants manufacturing company jointly owned by Shell, Total, Mobil, and BP.

After 23 years of fully learning the business and dreaming of “one day becoming his own boss,” Kadio-Morokro finally decided to go out on his own. Successful at convincing others to invest in his vision, Petro Ivoire was founded in 1994.

The venture quickly proved successful, and by 1998, Kadio-Morokro was chosen to be president of the professional oil distributors association.

Having proved the strength of his vision in the in the oil products business, Kadio-Morokro expanded the company into the butane gas distribution industry. In 2007, Petro Ivoire established a state-of-the-art butane facility with a storage capacity of 2.25 tons, at a cost of CFA 1.5 billion francs. Within two years, the new venture captured 15% of the butane market.

In January 2009, Petro Ivoire created its first subsidiary, SAEPP (African society for petroleum storage).

After sixteen years of being his own boss, and proving that he could be amazingly successful, Mathieu Kadio Morokro retired from daily management of Petro Ivoire and is succeeded by his son, Sebastian M-Morokro Kadio.

In September 2011, Petro Ivoire made its debut on the NYSE EURONEXT PARIS setting a new stage in its development.

When asked why potential investors should choose Petro Ivoire, Kadio-Morokro explains his enthusiasm for his business:

“It’s simple—because Petro Ivoire today is the most dynamic business in the oil and gas sector, the one with the most potential for growth. Everything is yet to be done at Petro Ivoire. For this reason, we are open to all propositions, which makes us more interesting to investors than groups that have already reached a certain level of growth and are less open to foreign offers, and have much less potential for growth. But we are still bigger and more established than small businesses, while being smaller than big businesses.“