Femi Otedola, the Nigerian billionaire, has officially been confirmed as the majority shareholder of First Bank Holdings PLC, with a five percent equity stake.
The bank via a statement by Company Secretary, Seyi Kosoko had earlier said that it is yet to receive a notification about the large acquisition of its shares by Otedola.
However, in a swift u-turn, FBN Holdings in another notice to the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) signed by Kosoko, said: “We refer to our communication to the market dated October 22, 2021, on the above subject wherein we stated that we would inform the public of any substantial acquisition, upon receipt of notification from the shareholder.
“This morning, October 23, 2021, FBN Holdings Plc received a notification from APT Securities and Funds Limited, that their Client, Mr. Otedola Olufemi Peter and his nominee, Calvados Global Services Limited have acquired a total of 1,818,551,625 units of shares from the Company’s issued share capital of 35,895,292,791. Based on the foregoing, the equity stake of Mr. Otedola Olufemi Peter and his nominee in the Company is now 5.07 percent.”
Quite a number of eyebrows have been raised after FBN Holdings experienced increased trading in its shares and the cumulative amount of shares traded passed 2.1 billion. This shot up the share value of the bank by 62.3 percent. All this happened in the last 10 days to Friday. We now know that Femi Otedola was the one behind the shares mop up of the bank.
This takeover may not have been possible if the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) hadn’t wielded its regulatory big stick on the bank by removing all directors of FBN Limited and FBN Holdings Plc. It has been reported Otedola took advantage of the crisis at the bank to accumulate shares and oust former FBN Holdings Chairman, Oba Otudeko.
