FBN Holdings shares retreat as Otedola offloads stake

Adebayo Obajemu

FBN Holdings’ shares reportedly declined by 13.4 per cent to a six-month low Thursday following the sale of about 834 million of the company’s shares by its single largest individual shareholder, Femi Otedola in a deal valued at about N9.2 billion.

The company, which traded within the gambit of N11 and N12 since Mr Otedola, the chair of Geregu Power Plc, became its majority shareholder, fell Wednesday to N10.90 at the close of business and later down to N10.30 on Thursday. By Friday afternoon, the company’s shares stood at N10.15.

Mr Otedola’s transactions were reported by FBN Holdings, the parent company of Nigeria’s oldest lender First Bank, as part of its Insider Dealing notification to the Nigerian exchange during the week.

Notifications posted on the Nigerian Exchange’s website showed that Mr Otedola sold 200,000,000 units at N11.10 on June 6. On the same day, the billionaire magnate offloaded other shares of entities related to him, including 170,000,000 units at N11.14 via Primrose Global Concept; 53,000,000 units at N11.10 via Impetus Synergy; 120,000,000 units at N11.10 via Wells Properties & Investment Company Limited and 174,939,764 units at N11.14 via Shetland Global.