Six Months After CBN’s Dissolution Of First Bank Board, Otedola Emerges Majority Shareholder

Exactly six months after the intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria in the management crisis in First Bank of Nigeria, billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, has acquired the majority shares in FBN Holdings.

FBN Holdings is the owners of First Bank Plc.

Otedola according to sources with knowledge of the transaction took over FBN Holdings with an acquisition of about N30bn worth of shares, making him the single largest shareholder of the bank.

Consequently, Otedola, being the largest shareholder, holds the highest voting shares, giving him power to dictate the direction of the bank through his voting power.

The battle for the control of Nigeria’s oldest lender, among two power blocs dominated by key shareholders with interests in its ownership, was at the heart of the recent shake-up of the bank’s board.

One of the blocks is led by Nigeria’s second richest man, Mike Adenuga

On April 29 this year, the Central Bank of Nigeria dismissed the boards of the bank and its holding company, FBN Holdings, in a dramatic move that came a day after the bank appointed a new managing director.

The regulator reinstated the former Managing Director of the bank, Adesola Adeduntan.

The CBN said First Bank, which has over 31 million customers with a deposit base of N4.2trn, shareholders’ funds of N618bn, has for years been plagued by “bad credit decisions, significant and non-performing insider loans and poor corporate governance practices”.

It was learnt that a key reason for the crisis is the tussle for control of the bank between a block led by Oba Otudeko, who until recently was the chairman of FBN Holdings’ board, and Adenuga, who recently emerged as one of the biggest shareholders in the bank.

While Otudeko and Ibukun Awosika, his ally on the board of FirstBank of Nigeria Limited, were removed from their positions as chairmen of FBN Holdings and FirstBank respectively, Adeduntan, who represented the interest of a late Ibadan mogul and prominent shareholder, Arisekola Alao, was reinstated as the bank’s chief executive.

Adeduntan, 51, is viewed by the Otudeko block as now serving the interest of Adenuga. Insiders said Adenuga recently took over the significant shares of Alao, who died in 2014.

According to sources who spoke on the subject matter, FBN holdings will soon make a public announcement on the historic purchase of the company shares on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange by Otedola.

It was gathered that Otedola has been acquiring the shares of the bank through a vehicle, Calvados Global Services Ltd.

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 floor of the stock exchange.

The latest audited account of FBN Holdings does not have any shareholder with up to five per cent of the ownership of the banking behemoth.

It is understood 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.

It was gathered that Otedola decided to take over First Bank Nigeria because of the internal crisis rocking the bank.