Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola has emerged as the majority shareholder of First Bank Holdings, owners of First Bank Nigeria, after acquiring a 5.07 per cent equity stake, the company confirmed Saturday.
The holding firm had earlier denied knowledge of the takeover saying it had not received a notification of a significant holding by Mr Otedola.
In a follow-up communication to the Nigerian Exchange Limited Saturday, the firm said it received notification from APT Securities and Funds Limited that its client, “that 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 35,895,292791.”
“Based on the foregoing, the equity stake of Mr Otedola Olufemi Peter and his nominee in the company is now 5.07%,” the notice signed by Seye Kosoko, company secretary, said.
In the 10 days to Friday, FBN Holdings witnessed an unusually massive trading in its shares and the cumulative number of units traded within the period surpassed 2.1 billion. The uptick in trading catapulted its share value by 62.3 per cent from the level it was three weeks ago.
FBN Holdings holds a substantial proportion of the eight per cent. A share purchase of this nature is often attractive to sellers as a premium will be added to the fair value that has been agreed to by both parties of the transaction.
“So there are expectations that will boost the earnings of FBN Holdings. That kind of (spurred) activities on FBNH as a ticker. That’s the connection between FBNH and Airtel,” the source said.
The First Bank move marks Mr Otedola’s foray into banking, having sold off his shareholding in Forte Oil Plc in 2019 to consolidate his investment in Geregu Power Plc.
Until now, Nigeria’s second richest man, Mike Adenuga, had been making vigorous plans to wrest control of the prime spot in FBN Holdings ownership before now.
