Femi Otedola, a popular Nigerian billionaire businessman and father of singer DJ Cuppy, is said to have taken over FBN Holding, one of Nigeria’s tier one banks, with his recent acquisition of about N30 billion in shares, making him the bank’s largest shareholder.
Otedola’s majority ownership of FBN Holding Company, the owners of Nigeria’s oldest bank, First Bank, is about to be upturned, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the transaction, after months of slow and meticulous purchase of the company’s shares on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
According to our sources, Femi Otedola has become the bank’s main shareholder, with an announcement expected in the coming days.
The billionaire investor and turnaround specialist best known for taking over African Petroleum earlier this century and transforming it into a dominant player in the downstream space of the oil and gas sector has been scooping up shares of the bank for months, gradually increasing his ownership and surpassing shares owned by any other single shareholder of the bank.
Glamsquad Magazine understands that Otedola has been acquiring the shares of the bank through Calvados Global Services Ltd. It is also possible that other vehicles affiliated with Mr Otedola have been scooping up shares as well. FBNH now has 34.7 billion shares floating freely, indicating that it is held by a diversified set of stockholders. As a result, the shares are straightforward to get on the stock exchange.
According to FBN Holdings’ most recent audited financial statements, no stakeholder owns more than 5% of the banking behemoth.
Otedola, on the other hand, lost no time in capitalizing on the leadership crisis that rocked First Bank not long ago, when the Central Bank of Nigeria fired both the bank’s chairman, Ibukun Awosika, and Obafemi Otudeko, the chairman of FBN Holdings.