Thu Mar 5, 2015/Reuters

Founder of oil producer Afren Plc , Ethelbert Cooper, is planning to change the company’s capital structure with a new partnership involving a consortium of Chinese investors, the Financial Times reported.

“With a different strategy and reinvigorated management there is a chance to pull the phoenix from the ashes. So I am leading an effort to reinvent the company as a new China Africa platform,” said Cooper to the Financial Times. (on.ft.com/1H27bvY)

However, Cooper said, that this plan of bringing in new capital in the form of equity, would work in the interests of Afren’s bondholders and new Chinese investors, whom he declined to name, the business daily said.

The Sunday Times reported on March 1 that a Chinese conglomerate was backing a $500 million bid led by Afren co-founder Bert Cooper. (thetim.es/1AqObBr)

The African energy group has already attracted Nigerian oil and gas players, Oando and Lekoil, who are planning to invest in Afren, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Afren, which has most of its oilfields in Nigeria, defaulted on Wednesday on its 2016 bonds as it negotiated a rescue deal with bondholders that will dilute the interests of its shareholders.

Afren could not be immediately reached for comment outside regular business hours.