Michael Prest: The reclusive billionaire

Michael Prest, the chief executive officer of Petrodel Resources Limited may not be a well-known name outside business circles, but he is well-regarded in the exclusive and close-knit world of international independent oil trading.

Mr. Prest is not your typical successful Nigerian businessman. He avoids flamboyance and prefers to keep a low profile.

He could even be described as dull and colourless, if one wanted to be unkind. At the age of 46; over the last four years, he has completed four international marathons. He is lean, wiry, possessed of an ageing body toned by self-discipline and an aura of incredible calm and self-control. He has never before given an interview.

Family ties

Mr. Prest is from a prominent Warri family. His grandfather was a judge and minister for communication in the first republic, his father was a lawyer, chief of staff and special adviser to President Shehu Shagari. He speaks of his family in reverential tones.

"I wouldn't be here today without the sacrifices my parents made for me." Mr. Prest went to public school in England, considered becoming a priest and gave up a place at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London to read law at the then University of Ife.

"That was the first time in my life where I really was put in an arena where people wanted to succeed. I had experienced adversity but I'd never had it right in my face and I think it was the first time in my life where I got a chance to understand who I was in the context of my own history."

A self-confessed introvert, Mr. Prest admits to a restless spirit. After being called to the bar in 1984, he went into legal practice but soon felt an urge to be part of something larger than himself.

"I was impatient because at that time a lot of my friends were getting involved in the global markets. Although, I didn't understand what it was at the time, I knew there was some momentum building and that young people were making some fairly big decisions. So, I left Nigeria in 1986, not knowing what I was going to do, but I had this energy."

He ended up in London hanging out with friends. He spent months meditating and praying, trying to figure out what he was going to do next.

"You have to be phlegmatic about failure. When you were young and you had those discos and the boys would stand on this end of the room and the girls would stand over there, I was always that child, as ugly and as short as I am, who would walk across and ask the most beautiful girl in the room to dance."

However, those who knew Mr. Prest rather well at Ife say he was popular largely because he was well -spoken, well turned out and had an unhealthy dose of self-confidence. It also helped that he was Helen Prest's brother. She was, while in Ife, Miss Nigeria.

"My brother has always been very determined and focused," says Helen Prest Ajayi. "He is very much the same now as he was then. He always knew what he wanted to do and where he was going."

Digression from Law

Through a reference from an old school friend, Mr. Prest was finally invited to his very first interview with Phillip Brothers (Salomon Brothers) and he was hired as a soft commodities trader covering Africa, Eastern Europe and China.

After four years of successful trading, he moved to the oil section as an apprentice to John Brunner, one of the most influential physical oil traders of his time, who took Mr. Prest under his wing.

Apprenticeship

"I was boy-boy to John Brunner. He asked me to make the tea, I'd make the tea. I met the top echelon of NNPC through him. NNPC was going to buy a refinery; he made me an integral part of the discovery and negotiation process. So I got the best education, from the best, at the time, on how to operate in the oil business."

Big break and loss

Mr. Prest soon made a name for himself in the world of high-rolling oil trading as a calm and shrewd negotiator, skills he deploys naturally through the course of this interview.

His future at Salomon Brothers seemed largely assured. Then his father died in 1993 at the age of 56. Mr. Prest was devastated. He was the first son. He had two younger brothers who were still in school.

"My father taught me: Never die until they kill you. Always work hard. Look after your siblings because it's your people, who when you have a problem will save you. And most importantly, he taught me from a very young age; know who you really are; not that image you project to people."

In the rarified world of oil traders in the ‘90s, the top players all knew each other. Mr. Prest soon came to the attention of oil trading legend Marc Rich, who reached out to him in 1996.

"If you were in oil trading, there were two companies or two individuals you always wanted to have worked for because you hoped some of the aura would rub off on you. One was Phillip Brothers, and the other one was Mr. Marc Rich. Despite all the stories you hear about him, if you're in oil trading, you don't get any bigger personality than Marc. So, when he was thinking of creating a new business, for him to have me in mind...It was simply a call I had to take...but it was a double-edged sword, because...I know what the world says about him."

"The only thing I will say is; there's a human side to this man...a lot of people feel like they haven't been given an opportunity for whatever reason...and to find an iconic figure, who didn't care that I was from Nigeria. He didn't care that you were black, white, Indian or Muslim. He just wanted to know, can you stay the course and can you cut the deal? Can you look him in the eye? Yes or No?"

Businessweek described Marc Rich as "the most-wanted white-collar criminal in U.S. history until his controversial pardon on President Bill Clinton's last day in office in 2001.

The art of the Rich deal according to a 2005 Businessweek article is: Do whatever it takes. The magazine went on: "Rich is notorious for trading with Iran during the hostage crisis, South Africa during apartheid, and Cuba and Libya during U.S. trade embargoes."

The Rich Boys, as his protégés have been called by Businessweek, form the most "powerful informal network of independent commodities traders on earth... ." Companies associated with Marc Rich and his protégés include, Glencore, Trafigura and Vitol, which do very brisk business in Nigeria.

Businessweek was however scrupulous enough to note that "Many of the Rich Boys' tactics may be hyper-aggressive, but they're perfectly legal." Michael Prest was one of the so called Rich Boys.

He worked for Marc Rich between 1996 and 2001; at one point running a global business with 400 employees and an annual turnover of $14 billion.

Mr. Prest's tenure at Marc Rich heralded the introduction of many young Nigerians and Africans into the company and as counterparties to the company. Many of them are still active today in the oil industry across the continent.

Relationship with Marc Rich

"Marc took a great interest in me and spent hours upon hours in his office in Zug literally teaching me and keeping me on my toes... he then allowed me to run his company trading crude oil and all the derivative products. He respected hardwork and most of all valued loyalty."

By the year 2001, Michael Prest felt that he had learned all he possibly could from Marc Rich and Petrodel came into its own.

"Don't forget I'd been an employee since 1986. It's the experience which I think, money can't buy. I really do understand the oil business. Wake me up at any time of the day. In this sector, when I talk; I know what I'm talking about. I don't want to seem arrogant when I say this but, if you had to pick 5-10 personalities in the oil trading business, my name would be there."

He is quick to declaim that Petrodel is a family business and to acknowledge his debt to his family, especially his father who gave the money and provided the contacts that started off the business.

Dance with his father

"My father made a point of telling everybody he knew in government; this is my son. Everywhere I went, they would give me an audience. So when I came home, my foot was already in the door. Not just because of me, but people knew my dad and they knew my grandfather, they knew my mother and they knew my sister...Without their sacrifices I would not be where I am today...truth be told, I had to do very little."

Petrodel Resources Limited

Petrodel today has diversified interests in real estate, leisure and hospitality. The company turned over more than a billion dollars last financial year.

He believes Petrodel will thrive, so long as it continues to add value to its host communities and invest in people:

"Anybody can make money; you will make money if you're useful." Unfortunately Mr. Prest was opaque on exactly how Petrodel is useful to its communities beyond providing employment opportunities and paying taxes, just like any other private enterprise.

Like most Nigerians of his generation he is preoccupied with the state of the nation and has interesting opinions about what has gone wrong.

"What Nigeria suffers from is a dereliction of duty. And I don't say this with any degree of criticism because maybe I am as guilty as others even from my perch in the private sector. A country works best when the people feel they're part of it. Today, the Nigerian oil industry needs to understand its place in the global oil industry...and I need to choose my words carefully...there's not a strong enough sense of patriotism."

"We haven't got to that point yet and we will only get to that point when the wheels of industry are driven by the resolute and the bold, who have now said to themselves, that theirs is a sacrifice where the benefit is a legacy they leave behind for our children."

The Niger Delta

The Niger Delta conflict for him is part of a larger, systemic rather than structural problem with nation-building.

"I've travelled extensively through the Niger Delta; Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom and I've seen the devastation. I've also travelled extensively abroad, in fact I was in Iraq last summer. I was in South Africa before Mandela was released; I've been to Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea and Venezuela. I was in Congo when they were fighting. Laurent Kabila, truth be told, was a friend of mine."

One cannot but wonder though, why Mr. Prest appears to have no qualms about doing business with a number of such reproachable leaders.

"In the oil markets," he says, "you do not have the luxury of choosing your own counterparties." Beyond managing Petrodel and building a successful business. Mr. Prest is interested in public service and in his legacy.

His sister says: "Everything he set out to do, he accomplished. I'm always telling him that he needs to follow his grandfather and father and use his specialist knowledge to serve the nation."

Michael Prest himself says. "At some point in time, I want to serve this country. I know I have something to give...If I happen to be successful, I would want to leave a legacy, it's the thing that drives me today because at the end of the day you came into this world alone and you will leave this world alone. The only thing that matters is what you did in between; what you did in between to help others."

Michael Prest is one of those people who are sometimes described as enigmatic. He is an ambitious man, who is also incredibly practical.

In his presence you can almost, as they say in those cheap crime novels, hear his brain working. You get the impression that every response, every move is well thought out and well calibrated.

As a parting shot I asked, "So why did you agree to do this, your first interview, at this time?" Michael Prest said: "A lot of things have been written about me over the years that are just false. I felt the need to set the records straight. I probably won't grant another interview after this."

For a man who seems not used to wasting even a gesture; "set the records straight" for what purpose? One wonders.