Billionaire investor and turnaround specialist, Femi Otedola has emerged as the single largest shareholder of banking behemoth, FBNHoldings Plc. The new shareholding structure will be announced in the coming weeks, according to credible sources at the Exchange.
According to sources close to the deal, the billionaire investor had been acquiring the shares of the bank through a vehicle, Calvados Global Services Ltd. It is also likely that there could be other vehicles associated with Mr Otedola who may have also been mopping up shares. FBNH currently has 34.7 billion of its shares floating freely meaning it is held by diverse shareholders. This makes the shares easy to acquire on the stock exchange.
Prior to this moment, FBN Holdings does not have any shareholder with up to 5%. Sources however revealed that Mr Otedola, through his proxies and investing vehicles, now owns more than 5% of the bank, setting himself up to be the single largest shareholder of the bank. According to our sources, shares of FBNH have been mopped up over the course of the last 6 months when the share price traded at just above N7. However, rumours of an imminent takeover started to make the rounds among traders pushing up the share price of the bank to breach the N8 ceiling by end of September.
FBNH reported a profit after tax of N38 billion in the first half of 2021 up from N35 billion same period in 2020. According to Financial Times, institutional investors like Black Rock Fund Advisors, Old Mutual Investments Group all own less than 1% individually of the bank.
