Otedola loses top shareholder spot at FBN Holdings as Otudeko acquires 13% stake

Femi Otedola, the chairman of Geregu Power, has yielded the top spot on the ownership ladder of FBN Holdings to Barbican Capital Limited, an affiliate of Oba Otudeko’s Honeywell Flour Mill, a regulatory filing showed on Saturday.

Barbican Capital accumulated shares of about 4.8 billion units in the parent company of Nigeria’s oldest lender FirstBank translating to a 13.3 per cent holding in the corporation, according to the document seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

That is more than twice the portion held by Mr Otedola, who in late 2021 had acquired a 7.6 per cent interest in the financial services group via off-market deals.

He displaced FirstBank’s Chair Tunde-Hassan Odukale to take the lead position but now holds a 5.6 per cent stake, having sold 834 million shares last June after the valuation of the stock soared.

Mr Otudeko, who chaired the group’s board until a shake-up ended his tenure in April 2021, controls Honeywell Flour Mill, where he owns a 75 per cent stake through Siloam Global Services Limited, according to the company’s 2022 earnings report.

Trading in the shares of FBN Holdings has been brisk this week, with almost 5 billion units traded, 95 per cent of that transacted on Thursday alone.

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The buy pressure and the current currency revamp in Africa’s largest economy have catapulted the stock’s valuation to its peak level ever, with its market capitalisation now at N728.7 billion, making Nigeria’s fourth-biggest lender by market value.

Only Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company and Stanbic IBTC Holdings Company exceed the group valuation.

In late April, Mr Otedola gave up the scramble for the top ownership of Nigeria’s biggest listed conglomerate Transnational Corporation of Nigeria to billionaire investor, Tony Elumelu, after clinging briefly to the second spot on the ownership hierarchy.