There are strong indications that the founder and chairman of the Geregu Energy Group, Femi Otedola, has acquired the majority shares of FBN Holdings (FBNH).
According to LEADERSHIP Newspaper, Femi Otedola, is behind a massive mop-up of the shares of FBN Holdings, which would result in his becoming the single majority shareholder of the company.
An official announcement would be coming in the days ahead.
Majority ownership of FBN Holding Company, is about to be upturned following months of slow and meticulous purchase of the company shares on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange by Otedola.
The billionaire investor and turnaround specialist famous for taking over African Petroleum earlier in the century and turning it into a dominant player in the downstream space of the oil and gas sector has been mopping up shares of the bank for months gradually accumulating his ownership and surpassing shares owned by any other single shareholder of the bank.
Otedola has been acquiring the shares of the bank through a vehicle, Calvados Global Services Limited. It is also likely that there could be other vehicles associated with 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.
It was gathered that Otedola, through his proxies and investing vehicles, now owns over five per cent of the bank, setting himself up to be the single largest shareholder of the bank.
In the first half (H1) of the year ended June 30, 2021, FBNH reported a profit after tax of N38 billion up from N35 billion same period in 2020. Speaking on the H1 performance of the Company, the Group managing director, U.K. Eke said, “FBN Holdings delivered a resilient performance in the half year, reflective of our focus on strengthening the organisation in recent years.
“We remain committed to our strategic objective of driving further stability in performance, as well as delivering sustainable growth over the years to come. In line with our focus on revenue diversification, we continue to grow our non-interest income as we progressively become a more transaction-led institution and implement innovative and technological driven measures to improve overall efficiency.
“The macro and socio-economic conditions remain challenging given the COVID-19 pandemic and the low-interest rates environment. While these points negatively impacted overall revenue generation, we are confident that FBNH can navigate this challenging operating environment and keep delivering sustained innovative solutions that enrich customer experience as well as deepen financial inclusion.”
