First Bank confirms Otedola highest shareholder

First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Holdings Plc has now confirmed billionaire businessman Femi Otedola as having the largest shares in the company.

It has thus written officially to the Nigerian Exchange notifying of the acquisition of substantial shareholdings in the holding company by Otedola.

This is coming after it said the firm had not received a notification of a significant holding by a new investor.

The company’s earlier notice on Friday was interpreted as a denial of any knowledge of a takeover of the company by Otedola, having acquired majority shareholding in the firm.

But the FBN Holdings Plc in another press release dated October 23, 2021 and published on the Exchange website, stated that it received a notification from APT Securities and Funds Limited, that their Client, Mr Otedola Olufemi Peter and his nominee, Calvados Global Services Limited, had acquired a total of 1,818,551,625 units of shares from the company’s issued share capital of 35,895,292,791.

It stated that the equity stake of Otedola and his nominee in the Company is now 5.07per cent.

The letter, read in part: “We refer to our communication to the market dated October 22, 2021 on the above subject matter where we stated that we would inform the public of any substantial acquisition upon receipt of any notification from the shareholder.

“This morning, October 23, 2021, FBN Holdings Plc received a notification from APT Securities and Funds Limited that their client Mr Otedola Olufemi Peter and his nominee Calvados Global Services Limited have acquired a total of 1,818,551,625 units of shares from the company’s issued share capital of 35,895,292,791.”