First Bank Holdings has finally confirmed, after several denials, the Nigerian billionaire, Femi Otedola, as the majority shareholder of First Bank Holdings, owners of First Bank Nigeria after acquiring a 5.07 per cent equity stake.
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.
With that communication, Mr Otedola becomes the bank’s single largest shareholder on record.
The bank had in its 2020 annual report and accounts stated that “According to Register of Members as at December 30, 2020, there is no shareholder with 5% of the shares of FBN Holdings Plc.”
This is the first time since that reporting that the bank is informing the Nigerian Exchange of a substantial acquisition of shares that has thrown up an individual with five percent significant slice of the company.
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.
Shares in FBN Holdings rose 1.24 per cent to N12.25 per unit on Friday following the news.
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.
The acquisition, estimated to have taken its stake in FBN Holdings beyond five per cent, will lift Mr Otedola’s shareholding above that of Oba Otudeko and Oye Hassan Odukale, two of the firm’s biggest owners with 1.5 per cent and 1.03 per cent holdings respectively.
It will be recalled that Otudeko, the immediate past chairman of FBN Holdings board, was ousted from the organisation’s top hierarchy this May after what seems like a violation of procedure in appointing the chief executive of the group’s commercial banking, First Bank, by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
It is assumed in many quarters that having seized to being the chairman of the bank, Oba Otudeko was required to sell off his shares, thus leading to Otedola assuming the new role of chairman of the bank.