Mr Femi Otedola, a billionaire businessman, has boosted his shareholding in FBN Holdings to N44 billion, effectively becoming him the largest shareholder in First Bank Plc’s holding company.
Otedola’s N44 billion investment allows him to own and control 7.57 percent of the company’s shareholding structure.
Otedola verified the development in a letter to the bank dated December 9, 2021.
Calvados Global Services (1.989 billion shares), Primose Global Concept (170 million shares), Shetland Global (174.939 million shares), Wells Properties (120 million shares), and Impetus Synergy (120 million shares) are among Otedola’s proxies, according to the letter (53 million shares).
Otedola presently owns 2.717 billion shares in FBN Holdings, according to the letter, which was copied to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria Exchange Ltd, and the Central Bank.
The letter reads, “I have recently acquired additional shares in FBN Holdings Plc (the Company) which has brought my total stake to 7.57 percent of the issued shares capital of the Company.”
Otedola and FBN Holdings’ Group Chairman, Mr Tunde Hassan-Odukale, have been fighting for control of the bank in recent months.
On October 25, First Bank said that Otedola had purchased a total of 1,818,551,625 units of the bank’s 35,895,292,791 share capital through two businesses, APT Securities and Funds Limited and APT Securities and Funds Limited.
According to FBN Holdings, Otedola owns 5.07 percent of the bank’s stock, which no single person owns.
Hassan-Odukale, who replaced former MD Ibukun Awosika, was named as the largest shareholder just three days later.
According to FBN Holdings, Hassan-Odukale owned 5.36 percent of the company in October, compared to 5.07 percent for Otedola.
In a statement last month, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, claimed that First Bank of Nigeria is too big for any individual to claim control of the country’s oldest bank.
If something happens to the bank, the apex bank boss added, it would be a major blow to the Nigerian banking sector.
The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who described the bank as “the glory of the country’s banking industry,” argued that the country’s oldest bank was too big for any single person to own.
Emefiele said, “It is a strong aggressively domestically important bank in Nigeria. If anything happens to First Bank, it means something has happened to the Nigerian banking system and that is why we are taking our guidance about how to get the bank afloat very seriously.
“Six years ago, like I said, because of the aggressive build up of Non Performing Loans, the shares of First Bank fell to N2 per share. We took it on, everybody was running away from the shares of First Bank.
“Because we have cleaned the balance sheet now, the NPL has dropped aggressively, people are seeing that this money-making machine, First Bank is back again in the race for profitability and they are now competing for the shares of First Bank.
“Why should I quarrel that people are competing for the shares for First Bank which six years ago was N2 and they were running away from it? Today the shares of First Bank when I looked at it were N11.55 during the weekend. I am happy to see that they are competing for the shares.”
