Femi Otedola, the Chairman of First Holdco has not increased his stakes in the company to 40 percent as being speculated, THISDAY newspaper reports.
There were reports on Wednesday that the business tycoon had secured a humongous off-market transaction of 10.43 billion units of the financial institution’s shares estimated at N323.4 billion.
The transaction, the reports claimed, raised his stake in First Bank or First Holdco to 36.7 percent, having acquired the shares of two major shareholders in the company, Oba Otudeko and Tunde Hassan-Odukale.
Otudeko and Hassan-Odukale were once Chairmen of First Bank Nigeria Holding Company, FBNH the mother company of Nigeria’s premier commercial bank, First Bank Nigeria Limited, FBNL.
Otudeko was sacked in 2021 by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, after scrutinizing his tenure as the company’s Board Chairman. He’s being prosecuted on fraud realted charges.
According to the newspaper, Otedola still retains his 15 perecent shares in First Holdco. The 25 percent reportedly acquired by him was acquired by a trustee of the federal government, under a special arrangement and settlement with Otudeko and Odukale.
Otudeko, the reports said was forced to sell his shares in the financial institution in exchange for the federal government to drop the court case against him, while Odukale agreed to exchange his shares for cash, and seek opportunity elsewhere.
The deal, the report stated further was facilitated by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and the CBN, a strategic move by the government to ensure that the company met the CBN recapitalization requirement deadline set by the apex bank.
“The shares are now with the trustee for the next two or three weeks when they will decide how to proceed and reach a strategic decision on what to do with the shares and also look at FBN’s plan for capital raise to meet CBN requirement”, a source familiar with the deliberations said.
It will be recalled that following shareholders infighting, Oba Otudeko was charged to Federal High Court based on a criminal complaint by Otedola-led FBN management – the infighting among shareholders left the CBN concerned that FBN may not meet the new capital requirement if the infighting continues. The apex bank working with the Attorney General decided to seek a none legal solution to the infighting, resulting in the exit of Oba Otudeko in return for withdrawing the criminal complaint and prosecution by First Bank.
The result is the movement seen in the market on Wednesday when a total of N324.47 billion value for 10.47 billion units of shares in off-market block trading on First Holdco Plc shares, took place on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX).
Oba Otudeko, the erstwhile Chairman of FirstHoldco, was forced to sell off over 20 percent of shares linked to him. Also, another long-term shareholder, the Hassan-Odukale family, voluntarily exited the bank and sold five percent of their holdings in a mega transaction as they sought better shareholder value elsewhere.
It was gathered that the off-market deal was executed at a fixed price of N31.00 per share on NGX as the lender’s stock price yesterday gained 9.9 per cent to close at N32.2 per share. (The Source)
