Indications emerged yesterday that the controversy over the recent emergence of prolific investor, Oba Otudeko, becoming the largest shareholder of FBNH Plc is yet to wane following feelers that he is currently opposed to FirstBank holding her Annual General Meeting (AGM). Findings by New Telegraph revealed that First- Bank’s decision to seek share- holders’ nod to raise capital through rights issue is likely to whittle down the shareholding of Otudeko as he would be compelled to provide cash to take up more shares, which may not be forthcoming.
His fear, according to sources, stem from the fact that his shares are likely to be diluted when other shareholders such as Femi Otedola, Mike Adenuga, Oye Hassan-Odulale and other majority shareholders take up their rights by backing it up with cash. Just last month, Barbican Capital, an affiliate of Honeywell Group, where Mr Otudeko has interest disclosed that they had purchased an aggregate of 4,770,269,843 shares in FBN Holdings Plc putting its stake at 13.3 percent.
Mr Otudeko, in the cross deal worth N87.8 billion, then took over from Nigerian billionaires, Otedola, and Adenuga, thereby making him the largest shareholder of Nigeria’s oldest financial institution. Messrs Odukale and Ad- enuga are joint third, each with seven percent shareholding. Saheed Arisekola is fourth with a five percent shareholding. Following the announcement, some of the majority shareholders of FBN Holdings Plc joined forces to fight Otudeko from reclaiming control of the bank holding company.
Barbican Capital Limited was only incorporated on March 9, 2023, with the Corporate Affairs Commission, RC 6900918, according to a search of public CAC records. Persons with significant control include: Oyeleye Fo- luke and Otudeko Obafemi. Foluke is understood to be the daughter of Oba Otudeko. “The shares were sold to Barbican Capital Ltd and kept with FBN Securities, UBA Capital and Royal Asset Management. It was also moved from the account of 26 sellers,”the source revealed.
FBN Holdings in a notice issued last July had said that it intended to raise fresh capital through a rights issue, pending the approval of shareholders at the AGM scheduled for this month. The lender said it in- tended to raise funds via the creation of 8.974 billion ordinary shares at 50 kobo each. Besides, the source said the shares Otudeko bought recently were crossed at the Nigerian stock market. He added that in such a situation, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has to issue an approval letter for such deal to be approved.
“As we speak now, those shares have not been approved by CBN, said a source in FBN. “Moreover, regarding the court case, as at this moment, FirstBank has not been served any letter by the court not to hold its AGM. “They are only misrepresenting what the court said. The previous letter from the court only said the status quo should be maintained, which everyone understands to mean that things should re- main the way they were. Not- ing was said about the AGM,” the source added.
Recall that during the week, some shareholders protested at the headquarters of FBN Holdings over an attempt to prevent the financial institution from holding its AGN as scheduled. The minority shareholders, who gathered in front of the headquarters, held placards and demanded that the institution be allowed to carry out its statutory duty of holding AGMs. (New Telegraph)
