Rubis cited for illegal data harvesting
French multinational Rubis is facing allegations of illegally harvesting information relating to the business of Gulf Energy using forensic data recovery specialists.
According to a court petition, Gulf Energy said the documents obtained by Rubis through the data mining from its servers formed part of its private and confidential information.
“It is the petitioner’s case that by a notice of warranty claim dated 3rd March, 2021 the respondent alleged that, with the assistance of data recovery specialists, it had recovered from the server and the reformatted laptops information relating to the entire business of the petitioner. As a result of the recovered data, the respondent proceeded to demand from the Petitioner a sum of at least USD 41 million being the alleged overstatement of the value of the GEHL shares. The respondent through the said notice also demanded access to the Petitioner’s books and records for the period up to 13th December, 2019,” read part of the petition.
Supported by the affidavit of Gulf Energy Chief Executive Francis Njogu, Gulf Energy says Rubis’ unauthorized access to its private and confidential information that was not part of the data to be transferred to GEHL constitutes a breach of confidence and violates its rights to privacy and property as set out in the petition.
Moreover, the demand by the respondent for further access to its books and records is a violation of or threat to its rights to privacy, property and access to information as set out in the petition.
On November 4, 2019, Rubis acquired Gulf Energy Holdings Ltd, a special purpose company housing part of the oil marketing assets and businesses of Gulf Energy Ltd.
At the time of the deal, Gulf Energy further owned two fuel depots in Mombasa and Nairobi along with a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage and filling plant and reported Sh3.2 billion in turnover in 2018.
The firm also had a cumulative sale of 470,000 coal-bed methane (CBM) of petroleum products in 2018 and was dealing in retail (46 gas station), a commercial business supplying power plants and large industrial consumers, a sizeable share of the aviation fuels, LPG and lubricants markets.
The firm want the court to declare that Rubis has violated or threatened it’s rights to privacy under article 31 of the Constitution and rights of access to information under Article 35 of the Constitution.
Additionally, Gulf Energy wants court declaration that Rubis’ actions in acquiring and using or seeking to use the Petitioner’s Confidential Information including working papers allegedly used for the preparation of the KPMG Report and the 2019 Specific Accounts.
“An injunction restraining the respondent by itself, its servants or agents or otherwise howsoever from using the Petitioner’s Confidential Information including working papers allegedly used for the preparation of the KPMG Report and the 2019 Specific Accounts,” read the petition.
In December last year, Rubis was also taken to court by dealers of Kobil petrol station for phasing them out.
Adivinner and Company owes Rubis Sh7.2 million as rent for the Embakasi Kobil station, an amount it (Adivinner) disputes.
Adivinner moved to court saying it risked losses if the French multinational evicts them from the Embakasi station.
Grace Mmasi, a senior principal magistrate at Milimani Commercial Courts, on November 23 last year allowed Rubis to recover Sh7.2 million plus incidental costs of recovery from Adivinner.
However, Adivinner claimed that Rubis planned to use the orders to evict the dealer from the station however, Rubis denied it.
Rubis acquired KenolKobil in March 2019 in a Sh36 billion deal.
KenolKobil was the third-largest in sales market share with 15.4 per cent while Gulf Energy had a 6.2 per cent market share.
The combined share now puts Rubis ahead of another French-owned oil and gas brand Total, which has a 16.3 per cent share and Vivo Energy, which enjoys a 16.1 markets share.
