April 22 - OMA Group's managing director, Gary Miller, and his co-directors, Carine Noukpo and Sam Edmund, have completed a management buy-out of the company from its founder, Captain R.A.M. Jones.

The company says that the "amicable" buy-out provides OMA Group with a platform upon which to further develop the business, as well as provide certainty in the group's future strategic direction.

Independent ship agency OMA was established in 1982 by Captain Jones, together with its affiliate company Togo Oil and Marine (TOM). In 2007, Miller joined the company as managing director, expanding OMA's footprint with the opening of additional offices in Benin, Ghana and Ivory Coast.

In 2008, Noukpo joined the company to lead the development of OMA Benin and in 2009, Edmund began helping to establish OMA Ghana.

According to OMA, it and its sister company, TOM, were "heading in different directions from a strategic and business development perspective", which led to negotiations and the subsequent buy-out.

New company shareholders Miller, Noukpo and Edmund will form the OMA board of directors.

OMA says that it is also actively expanding the group's activities in West Africa with plans already in place to build upon customer-identified business opportunities in Senegal and Cameroon.

www.omagroup-wa.com