Oba Otudeko, former First Bank chairman, has sold off its remaining shares in First HoldCo, two years after acquiring them.
Sources noted that Otudeko took part in one of the trades recorded by First HoldCo on Wednesday, as a total of 10.43 billion shares of the company were traded on the Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX.
However, the NGX has not confirmed if the whole shares of FirstHoldco belongs to Otudeto.
When contacted, the NGX spokesperson, Clifford Akpolo said : “ Let me quickly speak to my Regulation team”.
The NGX trading rules required that a sale or purchase of shares up to 5% must be notified.
Similarly, the First Bank’ s spokesperson, Mr Ismail did not respond to a text message sent to him, nor responded to calls.
Meanwhile, it was gathered that the deals representing about 25 percent of the FirstHolco Bank’s total outstanding shares were traded in 17 negotiated deals at a fixed price of N31 per share.
According to a source, the transaction, valued at N323.45 billion, is believed to be a strategic ownership shift.
A source said it is believed that the shares sold belonged to entities linked to Otudeko.
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).
The transaction now clears the path for Femi Otedola, currently the largest individual shareholder, to consolidate his control within the group.
It will be recalled that in 2023, Otudeko-led Honeywell acquired 4.7 billion shares of FBN Holdings (now known as First HoldCo).
Between the late 2000s and early 2020s, First Bank’s balance sheet came under pressure from a string of ‘non-performing insider-related loans’ to companies allegedly linked to Otudeko.
Similarly, the National President of Oil and Gas Service Providers Association of Nigeria, OGSPAN, Mazi Colman Obasi, said: “Nigeria is passing through a critical phase and needs to be very careful. We invest in many not very important programmes instead of areas that can stimulate sustainable growth in the economy. We need to maximise our oil and gas earnings as well as use them to diversify the nation’s economy. Nigeria should get to a point where we do not need to over-depend on oil and gas.”