- Femi Otedola regained majority shareholding of FirstBank on Thursday
- The battle for the majority shareholder position of the group has been on since 2021 after Otedola displaced Tunde Hassan-Odukale
- Otedola has also been embroiled in a legal tussle with Zenith Bank over alleged fraudulent transactions on his companies’ accounts
Otedola acquired 863,180,810 shares worth N18.9 billion at the Nigeria Exchange (NGX) on Thursday, June 20, and now owns a 9.41 per cent stake in the bank.
The billionaire businessman had previously held a 7.0 per cent stake in First Bank and trailed behind Oba Otudeko’s Barbican Capital Limited, which held an 8.67 per cent stake.
Otedola directly acquired 316,506,776 shares at a share price of N21.91 each, which amounted to N6.935 billion. His holding company, Calvados Global Services Limited equally acquired 546,674,034 shares at N21.97 each, which amounted to N12.01 billion, according to a corporate notice.
With his new acquisition, Otedola is now a majority shareholder in FBN Holdings and Geregu Power Plc, two major Nigerian companies.
After Jim Ovia’s 11.29 per cent shareholding of Zenith Bank, Otedola is the second-largest individual shareholding for any publicly listed bank.
Struggle for the soul of FBN Holdings
The struggle for the majority shareholding of FBN Holdings started in December 2021 when Otedola acquired an additional 2.5 per cent share of the group and brought his shares to 7.57 per cent from 5.07 per cent, displacing Tunde Hassan-Odukale whose interests stood at 4.40 per cent at the time.
In October 2023, despite the acquisition of 4.7 billion units of FBN Holdings shares by Oba Otudeko, the former chairman of the group, Otedola retained the majority shareholder position of the group.
Otedola was also appointed the new chairman of the board of directors of FBN Holdings in February this year to succeed Ahmad Abdullahi.
How Otedola has been making business moves
Despite not being in social circles in recent times, Otedola has been making major business moves.
He recently opted for an out-of-court settlement alongside some of his companies in a legal tussle initiated against Zenith Bank in March this year.
Otedola had claimed that Zenith Bank disposed of his shares in the bank without authorisation, manipulated the companies’ bank accounts and fabricated dome documents to conceal the alleged crimes.
He equally claimed that the bank wrongfully calculated his debts before them to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), which the bank had set up to buy the bank’s non-performing loans and further alleged the bank did so intending to recover them afterwards.
He and his companies had sent a notice of discontinuance of the case to the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Lagos Division, leading to the dismissal of the case on Thursday, June 13.
Otedola and his companies – Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, Seaforce Shipping Co. Limited, and Garment Care – are plaintiffs in the case, while Zenith Bank, Quantum Zenith Securities and Investment Limited, Veritas Registrars Limited and Central Securities Clearing System Plc are defendants.
Justice A.O Faji discontinued the lawsuit after the counsel for first to third defendants and the counsel for the plaintiffs asked that the matter be dismissed with no objection from the counsel to the fourth defendant, a court document stated.
