Femi Otedola, the Nigeria billionaire and Chairman of FBN Holdings, has reclaimed his position as First Bank’s biggest shareholder.
He currently owns 9.41% of the bank after buying N18.9 billion in NGX shares on June 20. The financial firm submitted a corporate notice on the NGX’s website.
Otedola’s purchases, according to a file reviewed by the local news brand show he purchased 316,506,776 shares at N21.91 per, totaling N6.935 billion.
He then purchased 546,674,034 shares at N21.97 each, totaling N12.01 billion, via his holding firm, Calvados Global Services Limited.
Formerly, he held a 7.01% interest in the bank, trailing Oba Otudeko’s Barbican Capital Limited, which owns an 8.67% share. Thus, by purchasing an extra 863,180,810 shares, he added 2.40% to his existing stake, bringing his overall stake in the group to 9.41%.
The quest of a majority ownership in FBN Holdings has been a dramatic journey that began in October 2021, when Femi Otedola declared that he had gained a 5.07% stake. Following that, in December 2021, Otedola boosted his shareholding to 7.57%, representing a huge jump.
Otedola sold about thirty percent of his ownership stake in the business by the middle of 2022, bringing his shareholding down to 5.24%. But by July 2023, Oba Otudeko had made a comeback via Barbican Capital Limited, his company, which held a 13.3% stake in FBN Holdings.
Barbican’s 8.67% ownership was certified by the company in its audited statements at the end of the financial year; the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) corroborated this figure.
Even after Otedola became Chairman of FBN Holdings in January 2024, concerns remained about Otedola’s possible power inside the business. Otedola has declared himself to be the largest shareholder and appears to have assumed complete control in his capacity as Chairman.
Re-entering the Forbes Billionaires List this year, Femi Otedola currently owns a majority stake in two significant Nigerian businesses, FBN Holdings and Geregu Power Plc. Only Jim Ovia’s 11.29% stake in Zenith Bank is more than his second-largest individual ownership in any publicly traded bank in Nigeria.
The purchase of Otedola accounted for 99% of the 871.084 million shares that FBN Holdings traded on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) today. The share price of FBN Holding ended trading at N21.9, down 0.45%.
