*First Bank says it is not aware of the takeover
Nigerian billionaire, Femi Otedola, has reportedly assumed control of First Bank, Nigeria’s oldest bank, after buying shares worth N30 billion of the company’s equities at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, where the firm is listed.
According to the report, Otedola may have taken advantage of the crisis at FBN Holdings Plc, the parent company of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, which also recently had a board crisis, to take over the company. Otedola is now the single majority shareholder of the first generation lender in Nigeria.
The crisis saw the exit of the Chairman of FBN Holdings, Oba Otudeko and the entire board. This was part of efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria sanitise the bank which the Apex Bank had been supporting for a while.
In recent times, there has been an upward movement in the share price of FBN Holdings at the stock market and this has raised many eyebrows as some investors were asking what was driving the hike.
Reacting, First Bank Holdings, owners of First Bank Nigeria, denied knowledge of a takeover of the company by Otedola.
Although the company did not deny the possibility of an acquisition, it said the firm had not received a notification of a significant holding by Otedola.
“As a listed company, the shares of FBN Holding Plc are publicly traded, and sale and acquisition of shares is expected in the normal course of business. We operate in a regulated environment, which requires notification of significant shareholding by Shareholders to the company, where shares are held in different vehicles, further to which the company will notify the regulators and the public as appropriate,” a notice by the firm to the NGX exchange on Friday said.
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.
The reported acquisition, estimated to have taken its stake in FBN Holdings beyond five percent, will lift Otedola’s shareholding above that of Oba Otudeko and Oye Hassan Odukale, two of the firm’s biggest owners with 1.5 percent and 1.03 percent holdings respectively.
