Kayode Tokede
The market capitalisation of FBN Holdings Plc, last week appreciated by N116.66 billion following the 4,770,269,843 shares bought by a former Chairman of the bank’s board, Oba Otudeko.
The Holdings’ market capitalisation moved to N728.67billion when its stock price closed last Friday at N20.3 per share from N612 billion, when its stock price was at N17.05 per share the previous week.
The N20.3 per share price of FBN Holdings is the highest so far in 2023 and an all-time high since becoming a Holdings.
The stock price of FBN Holdings has gained 86.2 per cent as of July 7 when it opened for trading this year at N10.90 per share.
The shares, which Otudeko bought at N19 per unit, are the largest volume of First Bank shares traded in a single day since 2012, when the stock exchange started publishing data. The acquisitions raised his shareholding to 14 per cent of the bank’s outstanding market value.
The acting company secretary, FBN Holdings, Mr. Adewale Arogundade in a signed statement on the NGX disclosed that its received notification from Honeywell Group Limited that its affiliate, Barbican Capital Limited has acquitted an aggregate of 4,770,269,843 units of shares from the company’s issued share capital of 35,895,292,792 as of July 7, 2023.
He added that, “Based on the foregoing the equity stake of Barbican Capital Limited in the company is 13.3 per cent.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBNN) in 2021 removed Oba Otudeko as chairman and sacked the board of the bank.
However, a “disclosure of shareholding” sent to the Company Secretary, FBN Holdings and dated July 7, 2023, by the Head of Governance and Sustainability at Honeywell Group Limited, Yewande Giwa, stated: “We write on behalf of Barbican Capital Limited, an affiliate of Honeywell Group Limited and refer to the provisions of Sections 119 and 120 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 (as amended).
“In addition to the previously disclosed interests by Honeywell Group Limited’s affiliates, kindly take this as notification that, as of 7th July 2023, Barbican Capital Limited has acquired an aggregate of 4,770,269,843 shares in FBN Holdings Plc.”
Otudeko, who was chairman of FBN Holdings until 2019, is making a swift comeback to become the single largest shareholder.
