Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) reduced its negative equity from GHS 7.5 billion to GHS 5 billion by the end of 2025, Managing Director Edmond Kombat said on Wednesday 11 November at the Ghana Economic Forum in Accra, JoyBusiness reported.
That is a GHS 2.5 billion improvement, or a cut of one third (StatsGH calculation).
"We had inherited a negative equity of 7.5 billion. At the end of 2025, it came down to 5 billion," Mr Kombat said. Negative equity means the refinery's liabilities exceed its assets on its balance sheet.
Assets last valued in 2009
Mr Kombat said TOR's assets were last valued in 2009 and that valuers had been brought back to revalue them. Management plans to move the refinery to positive equity through debt restructuring and that revaluation, he said. He did not say how much of the GHS 2.5 billion improvement came from profits, debt changes or other balance-sheet adjustments, and TOR has not published audited 2025 accounts showing the figures.
For context, the GHS 2.5 billion reduction is about twice the GHS 1.24 billion profit for 2025 that StatsGH reported in October (StatsGH comparison). TOR's management said at the time that it had inherited large accumulated losses and US$517 million of debt.
2028 listing target and three years of profit
Mr Kombat said the aim was to clean up the balance sheet, restructure the debt and reach positive equity before a planned listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange in 2028, and that management was targeting at least three years of sustained profitability before listing.
In separate remarks at the same forum, he said private participation, including pension funds, would bring independent directors onto the board and make the state-owned refinery harder to run down again. StatsGH first reported the listing plan on 27 October.
What is not yet known
The figures are from Mr Kombat's speech as reported by JoyBusiness. TOR has not released the revaluation results, a debt restructuring plan or audited financial statements for 2025. StatsGH will update this story when those documents are published.
Sources: Edmond Kombat, Managing Director, Tema Oil Refinery, Ghana Economic Forum, 11 November 2026, as reported by JoyBusiness and JoyBusiness. StatsGH calculations: GHS 7.5 billion − GHS 5 billion = GHS 2.5 billion; 2.5 ÷ 7.5 = 33.3%.