Sterling Bank CEO, Three Other Directors Battle For Dominance, Mop-Up 70 Million Shares

The Group Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bank, Yemi Odubiyi and three other top members of the bank have increased their stake in the multi-billion naira bank.

The four directors mopped up 70,000,000 shares of the bank worth N262.5 million.

The three other directors competing for the stake are, Abubakar Suleiman, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bank, Tunde Adeola and the Executive Director, Commercial and Institutional Banking; Raheem Owodeyi who is the Executive Director, Operations and Retail Banking.

Details of the transactions seen by THE WHISTLER on Tuesday show that the transaction dated August 11, 2023, was priced N3.75 per share.

Suleiman who doubles as a non-executive director acquired the highest share of 23,000,000 worth N86.25 million. Suleiman’s stake was 312,668,608 units or 1.09 per cent as of June 4 when he acquired 50 million shares.

His direct share has hit 335,668,608 units.

The CEO, Odubiyi acquired an additional 17,500,000 shares in the company worth N65 million. With the deal, he has increased his direct shares from 295,190,895 units as of 10th August 2023, to 312,690,895 units or 1.09 per cent.

Adeola, an Executive Director of the company spent N55.12 million in the acquisition of additional 14,700,000 units at N3.75 per share.

The fourth transaction was carried out by Owodeyi who added 14,700,000 shares worth N55.12 million at N3.75 per share.

Findings by THE WHISTLER revealed that as of June 2023, only four shareholders have shareholding of 5 per cent.

They include Silverlake Investment Limited which controls 7,197,604,531 or 25 per cent of issued shares; State Bank of India has 2,549,505,026 shares or 8.86 per cent and Dr. Mike Adenuga has 1,620,376,969 shares which is 5.63 per cent of total shares.

Ess-ay Investments Limited is the fourth highest shareholder with 1,462,919,568 shares which is equivalent to 5.08 per cent of company shares.

The lender has a market capitalisation of 106,524,547,058.80 and an outstanding share of 28,790,418,124 shares.

In June 2023, the company declared N99.1bn in revenue and a profit after tax of N10.68bn in the first half of 2023.