As against its initial denial, the management of First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Holdings Plc has written officially to the Nigerian Exchange notifying of the acquisition of substantial shareholdings in the Holding Company by a new investor.
This is coming after it said the firm had not received a notification of a significant holding by a new investor.
The company’s earlier notice dated Friday was interpreted in some quarters as a denial of any knowledge of a takeover of the company by Femi Otedola, the billionaire reported as having acquired majority shareholding in the firm.
However, in what looks like a twist, FBN Holdings Plc in another press release dated October 23, 2021 and published on the Exchange website, stated that it received a notification from APT Securities and Funds Limited, that their Client, Mr. Otedola Olufemi Peter and his nominee, Calvados Global Services Limited have acquired a total of 1,818,551,625 units of shares from the Company’s issued share capital of 35,895,292,791.
Furthermore, it stated that the equity stake of Otedola Olufemi Peter and his nominee in the Company is now 5.07per cent.
The letter read in part: “We refer to our communication to the market dated October 22, 2021 on the above subject matter where we stated that we would inform the public of any substantial acquisition upon receipt of any notification from the shareholder.
“This morning, October 23, 2021, FBN Holdings Plc received a notification from APT Securities and Funds Limited that their client Mr Otedola Olufemi Peter and his nominee Calvados Global Services Limited have acquired a total of 1,818,551,625 units of shares from the company’s issued share capital of 35,895,292,791.”
Market players said that in the 10 days to Friday, FBN Holdings witnessed unusually massive trading in its shares and the cumulative number of units traded within the period surpassed 2.1 billion.
The uptick in trading catapulted its share value by 62.3 percent from the level it was three weeks ago.
Analysts at said that the trading boom started with a move by Airtel Africa to acquire a minority stake in Airtel Nigeria, adding that there have been lots of activities on FBN Holdings shares over the past two or three weeks now.
FBN Holdings holds a substantial proportion of eight per cent. A share purchase of this nature is often attractive to sellers as a premium will be added to the fair value that has been agreed to by both parties of the transaction.
On Friday, there were reports confirming Otedola had emerged the majority shareholder of FBN Holding after quietly mopping up the shares of the company in the last few weeks, using a special purpose vehicle, indicating the accumulation further drove the FBN Holding trading to a record high.
Shares in FBN Holdings rose 1.24 per cent to N12.25 per unit on Friday following the news.
The First Bank move would mark Otedola’s foray into banking, having sold off his shareholding in Forte Oil Plc in 2019 to consolidate his investment in Geregu Power Plc.
The acquisition, estimated to have taken its stake in FBN Holdings, will lift Otedola’s shareholding above that of Oba Otudeko and Oye Hassan Odukale, two of the firm’s biggest owners with 1.5 per cent and 1.03 per cent holdings respectively.
