Otedola increases stake in FBNH, acquires additional 798m shares

• 9 companies fined 76.8 million for rule violation

Chairman of FBN Holdings Plc, Femi Otedola, yesterday, increased his stake in the premier financial group, consolidating his position as the largest shareholder in Nigeria’s oldest financial institution.

According to the NGX, the billionaire business mogul confirmed that he had acquired an additional 797,946,415 shares of the company at an average price of N21.58.

The transaction value of the new acquisition amounts to a staggering N17.2 billion. This latest acquisition takes his combined stake to 11.64 per cent, making him the only shareholder of the bank with a total shareholding exceeding 10 per cent.

Otedola had, last week, acquired N18.9 billion worth of shares of the bank, which increased his shareholding to 9.41 per cent. He now holds a combined 4.178 billion shares of the company’s total outstanding shares of 35.895 billion.

This comes as the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) imposed fines worth N76.8 million on the group and eight others for failure to meet post listing requirements on filing of financial statements.

This is in addition to N49.5 million fines slammed on three prominent companies for their failure to submit audited financial statements on time last month.

The exchange in its X-Compliance report listed the eight companies to include: African Alliance Insurance Plc, VFD Group Plc, Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc, UPDC Plc, ABC Transport Plc, Presco Plc, eTranzact International Plc and NCR (Nigeria) Plc.

The companies were sanctioned for their inability to meet the regulatory requirements for the year-end 2022 and 2023 financials. A breakdown of the fines showed that African Alliance Insurance Plc was finned N48.6 million for inability to file the 2022 annual financial statement when required while VFD Group Plc, FBN Holdings Plc, Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc, UPDC Plc, ABC Transport Plc, Presco Plc, eTranzact International Plc, and NCR (Nigeria) Plc were levied N5.6 million, N5.4 million, N6 million, N3.9 million, N3.2 million, N3.2 million, N700,000 and N200,000 for failure to submit their 2023 annual financials