There seems to be uncertainty around the share sales and purchase deal between Oba Otudeko, Hassan Odukale on one hand and Femi Otedola on the other in First HoldCo, the parent company of First Bank.
The deal delivered an unprecedented quantum of the financial group’s shares to Otedola, the current Group Chairman of First Holdco, from the shareholdings of Odukale and Otudeko, the two immediate past chairmen of the group.
Also the deal ramped up Otedola’s holdings in the Group to an unprecedented level of 40%, the largest in the history of the bank and also largest single shareholdings amongst the tier-1 banks in Nigeria.
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However, when Vanguard contacted the Nigerian Exchange Limited, the Spokesperson, Clifford Akpolo, said: ”I am not aware of these transactions as the NGX Reg has not notified the NGX.”
The NGX trading rules required that a sale or purchase of shares up to 5% must be notified to the NGX Reg. The deal covered about 25% of the bank’s total shareholding.
Similarly, First Bank’ s spokesperson, Mr. Ismail Omamegbe, did not respond to a text message sent to him, nor responded to calls in respect of the deal.
But sources in the bank indicated that the deal was executed off-trading floor and in connection with the long-drawn battle between the current board of the bank group and the two former board chairs who opted to surrender their shares for the bank to drop legal proceedings against them.
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The deal, executed through 17 negotiated trades at ?31 per share, involved the transfer of 10.43 billion units of FBN Holdings shares and is estimated to be worth over ?324 billion.
The acquisition, confirmed by trading data and capital market sources, marks a turning point in the ownership structure of one of Nigeria’s oldest and most prominent financial institutions.
The buyer in all 17 deals was First Securities Ltd, while the sellers included CardinalStone Securities, Meristem Stockbrokers, Renaissance Capital, Regency Asset Management, Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers, United Capital Securities, and First Securities Ltd (acting as both buyer and seller in select trades).
(VANGUARD)
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