The Chairman of First Bank Holdings Plc, Femi Otedola, has acquired an additional 534,094,407 million shares of First Bank Holdings Plc.
The shares were acquired between September 23-25, 2024, according to a regulatory filing shared by FBNH on Thursday.
Details of the transaction with identification code: ISIN: NGFBNH000009 was acquired by the billionaire at N30 per share.
An analysis by NewsNGR shows that Otdola spent N16.02bn on the share acquisition.
NewsNGR‘s further checks show that as of June 2024, Otedola had 1,125,681,332 direct shares or 3.14 per cent and 3,061,921,372 indirect shares of 8.53 per cent.
Barbican Capital Limited controls 3,110,400,619 shares or 8.67 per cent of the total shareholdings.
The development is coming over a month after FBNH confirmed that it is in court with Oba Otudeko’s Barbican Capital Limited after Barbican received notification that showed that FBN Holdings sought to reduce its 5,386,397,202 total shareholding in the bank by 40 per cent.
The misunderstanding began when FBN Holdings in its December 2023 audited accounts released in May, 2024 slashed Barbican’s shareholding in the bank to 3.1 billion (3,110,400,619) or 8.67 per cent of the lender’s total shares from the earlier reported 4.8 billion (4,886,062,743).
Prior to the report, Barbican controlled 13.61 per cent of the shares based on the December 2023 unaudited accounts released in February.
FBNH attached to the audited accounts a note that said the 3.1 billion shares represent the total that had been “verified” by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
But aggrieved Barbican Capital filed a lawsuit against FBN Holdings, and attached a statement from the Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) as evidence of its total shares ownership.
Based on the Barbican statement from CSCS as of May 23, 2024, the company owned 5,386,397,202 shares (15.01 per cent) while It held 4.8 billion (4,886,062,743) shares or 13.61 percent as at December 2023.