A CONTROVERSIAL London-listed energy company has spent $8m (£4.7m) buying a corporate jet from a business controlled by its two key directors.

Energem Resources is acquiring a Gulfstream III from Diamond Air Charters, a business 80% controlled by Tony Teixeira, the colourful South African entrepreneur who serves as executive deputy chairman on the Energem board.

The remaining 20% of Diamond is held by Brian Menell, Energem’s executive chairman. The jet’s price is equivalent to about one third of Energem’s market capitalisation.

Although Energem has told its shareholders about the involvement of its directors in the jet deal, the move is likely to draw attention in the City.

Energem has justified the purchase to shareholders by arguing that the jet is a “key strategic asset” that can ferry its management to “any location in Africa on short notice”.

The firm has been leasing the plane frequently and has argued that the difference in costs is negligible.

Investors will get a chance to vote on the deal at an upcoming shareholder meeting. RAB Capital, the London hedge-fund group, is Energem’s biggest external shareholder with a stake of close to 17%.

The RAB stake in Energem is held across several funds inside the company.

According to sources close to one of the funds, the jet deal has been given unofficial sanction by RAB.

It comes after Energem booked a $31.4m profit on the sale of its 30% stake in a fuel depot in the Nigerian capital, Lagos. That deal is linked to a financing agreement with one of Energem’s Nigerian joint-venture partners. If Energem’s shareholders vote down the proposed disposal, the company will have to start paying interest of 0.5% a month on a $42m loan.

Energem is paying interest of 15.5% a year on a separate $2m financing facility to support the jet purchase.

Energem listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market almost a year ago. It used to be known as Diamondworks - a firm that was embroiled in the scandals of the 1990s, where diamonds were illegally traded to finance civil wars in Angola and Sierra Leone.

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