- By Halimah Olamide
Business mogul, Mr. Femi Otedola has again emerged the biggest shareholder of the First Bank of Nigeria.
Otedola now holds a 9.41 per cent stake in the bank after acquiring N18.9 billion worth of the group’s shares on the Nigerian Exchange on June 20.
A corporate notice displayed on Thursday showed that Otedola directly acquired 316,506,776 shares at a share price of N21.91 each, amounting to N6.935 billion.
He acquired 546,674,034 shares at N21.97 each, amounting to N12.01 billion, through his holding company, Calvados Global Services Limited.
Otedola had held a 7.01 per cent stake in the bank which trailed another mogul and boardroom giant, Mr. Oba Otudeko’s Barbican Capital Limited, with a 8.67% stake.
Otedola has therefore acquired a total of 863,180,810 shares; boosting his total stake in the group to 9.41 per cent.
Otedola’s acquisition accounted for 99 per cent of FBN Holdings’ turnover volume of 871.084 million shares on the NGX.
Otedola, who rejoined the Forbes Billionaires List this year, is now the majority shareholder in two major Nigerian companies, FBN Holdings and Geregu Power Plc.
He also owns the second-largest single individual shareholding for any publicly listed bank, behind Jim Ovia’s 11.29 per cent shareholding of Zenith Bank.
The contest for the majority stake in FBN Holdings dates back to December 2021, when Femi Otedola increased his shareholding from 5.07 per cent to 7.57 per cent.
The battle for the majority stake in FBN Holdings dates back to December 2021, when Femi Otedola increased his shareholding from 5.07% to 7.57%.
Otedola acquired a 7.6 per cent interest in the financial services group in 2021. He displaced Tunde Hassan-Odukale to take the lead position but then held a 5.57 per cent stake according to the unaudited report of the lender for the first half of 2023.
Hassan-Odukale interests stood at 4.40 per cent at the end of the same period.
Again, in October 2023, Otedola was listed as the largest shareholder of First Bank of Nigeria Holdings Plc, despite the acquisition of 4.7 billion units of FBNH shares by the former chairman of the group, Oba Otudeko.