Nigeria’s Femi Otedola buys 5.5% of Transcorp Plc

Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola has acquired 5.5 percent of Transcorp Plc shares making him the second largest shareholder of the company, according to findings by local media, BusinessDay .

Sources confirmed the transaction was facilitated by an agreement between an entity owned by Otedola and Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

The report showed Otedola now owns about 2.245 billion shares representing 5.52 percent of the company.

The firm’s latest audited reports showed the only other shareholder with over 5 percent ownership of the company is UBA Nominees which owns about 9.25 percent of the company as of December 2022.

“As of December 31, 2022, only UBA Nominees Limited-Trading, held 5 percent or more of the issued and fully paid shares of 50 Kobo of the company,” Transcorp said in its latest financial statement.

It noted that UBA Nominees’ stake in the firm amounted to 9.25 percent (3,760,000) in the period under review compared with 9.26 percent (3,762,647) in the previous year.

Efforts to reach Jude Nwauzor, head of corporate communication, AMCON proved abortive as he was not replying to calls or messages.

According to its details on Central Securities Clearing System Plc, UBA Nominees Limited was registered in August 2007 as a private unlimited company and has UBA Trustees Limited, Emmanuel Nnorom and three others as directors.

It is controlled by UBA Group, which has Nigerian businessman Tony Elumelu as its chairman.

At the time of filing this report, Transcorp was yet to inform the investing public, through the stock exchange, of this deal.

Transcorp controls subsidiaries like Transcorp Hotels, Transcorp Power, and Transcorp Energy. These entitled also have businesses under their care.

Otedola who is also the chairman of Geregu Power, a company he took public in the third quarter of last year, owns 2.388 billion worth of shares indirectly through Amperion Power Distribution Limited, which is 95.56 percent of the company’s total ordinary shares of 2.50 billion, according to data from the NGX website.

The directors have recommended the payment of N8 per share dividend to the shareholders on 30 January 2023.

Otedola also acquired significant control of FBN Holdings early last year when he announced he had acquired shareholdings above the 5 percent threshold, a development that triggered a bidding contest for stocks.

Analysts say the scenario is unlikely to repeat itself due to Transcorp’s single majority shareholder with controlling stakes.