Elumelu Moves To Prevent UBA Takeover, Acquires N560m Worth Of Shares

Tony Elumelu, the Chairman of Heirs Holding has invested N560m to increase his shares in United Bank For Africa.

This was revealed in a notice sent to the Nigerian Exchange Ltd on Thursday, seen by THE WHISTLER.

Checks showed that register of shareholders as of 31 December 2022, Elumelu controls the shares of UBS held by HH Capital Limited 140,843,816; Heirs Holdings Limited 1,814,003,900 and Heirs Alliance Limited 231,086,468 totaling 2,185,934,184 shares.

No shareholder held more than 5 per cent of the share capital of the Bank except Heirs Holdings Limited 1,814,003,900 5.30 per cent.

But the investor through HH Capital Ltd got extra 70,000,000 shares at N8 per share. Elumelu spent N560m in the deal.

With the deal, Elumelu’s shares through HH Capital had risen to 210,843,816. His total shareholding in UBA is now 2,255,934,184.

Elumelu controls Heirs Holdings, a conglomerate that controls big names like UBA, Transnational Corporation, Transcorp Hotel Transcorp Power, Heirs Oil and Gas and United Capital Plc among others.

The decision may be to prevent the ownership tussle between Elumelu and the Chairman of Geregu Power, Femi Otedola.

Otedola had taken over Transnational Corporation when he acquired a whooping 2.6 billion unit of shares or 6.3 per cent of Transcorp to became the highest individual shareholder.

Elumelu forced Otedola out of Transcorp when both parties entered negotiations for Otedola to exit after a landmark deal.

But in reaction, Elumelu through HH Capital Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) owned by him had acquired 9,697,189,984 units of shares, bringing its total holdings in Transcorp Incorporated to 9,991,173,177 units, 9,991,173,177 units.

The shareholding represents 25.58 per cent of the Company’s total shares.