Billionaire investor, Femi Otedola now majority shareholder of First Bank
FBN Holdings shares fall after Otedola offloads 800m shares
One of Nigeria’s most respected bank holding companies, FBN Holdings announced its largest single shareholder Femi Otedola has sold down about 834 million shares of FBN Holdings in a deal valued at about N9.28 billion only.
Because of this , FBN Holdings’ shares fell 13.4 per cent to a six-month low Thursday.
The company, which traded within the range of N11 and N12 since Mr Otedola, the chair of Geregu Power Plc, became its majority shareholder, declined Wednesday to N10.90 at the close of business and later down to N10.30 on Thursday. By Friday afternoon, the company’s shares stood at N10.15.
Otedola’s transactions were reported by FBN Holdings, the parent company of Nigeria’s oldest lender First Bank, as part of its Insider Dealing notification to the Nigerian exchange during the week.
Notifications posted on the Nigerian Exchange’s website showed that Mr Otedola sold 200,000,000 units at N11.10 on June 6. On the same day, the billionaire magnate offloaded other shares of entities related to him, including 170,000,000 units at N11.14 via Primrose Global Concept; 53,000,000 units at N11.10 via Impetus Synergy; 120,000,000 units at N11.10 via Wells Properties & Investment Company Limited and 174,939,764 units at N11.14 via Shetland Global.
Otedola previously owned 2,717,282,140 shares or 7.57 per cent of the bank. Last December, Mr Otedola acquired at least 2.5 per cent additional interest in the company, bringing his total stake to 7.57 per cent from an acquisition of 5.07 per cent.
With 2.717 billion units, Mr Otedola held 210 million directly, 1.989 billion through Calvados Global Services Limited, 170 million through Primrose Global Concept, 175 million through Shetland Global, 120 million through Wells Properties and 53 million through Impetus Synergy.
“I have recently acquired additional shares in FBN Holdings Plc (the Company) which has brought my total stake to 7.57 per cent of the issued shares capital of the Company,” he had said in a letter notifying the group managing director of FBN Holdings of his shareholding status last December.
“Section 120 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act requires that I give notice in writing to the Company stating amongst other things, the particulars of the shares held by me or my nominees by virtue of which I am a substantial shareholder.”
For the most part of the last quarter of 2021, the billionaire mogul had been in contention with Tunde-Hassan Odukale, the chair of Nigeria’s oldest lender FirstBank of Nigeria Limited (a subsidiary of FBN Holdings) over who owns the most shares in the group.
