News NileApril 13, 2023

Otedola buys stakes in Transcorp

Billionaire Femi Otedola has acquired 5.5 percent shares at Transcorp Plc, making him the second largest shareholder of the company.

BusinessDay reports that sources confirmed on Wednesday that the transaction was facilitated by an agreement between an entity owned by Otedola and Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

AMCON spokesman Jude Nwauzor could not be reached for comments.

Otedola, who is also the chairman of Geregu Power, now owns about 2.245 billion shares representing 5.52 percent of the company.

The only other shareholder with over five percent ownership of Transcorp Plc is UBA Nominees which owns about 9.25 percent of the company as of December 2022, according to the firm’s latest audited reports.

“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.

UBA Nominees Limited was registered in August 2007 as a private unlimited company. It is controlled by UBA Group whose chairman is Tony Elumelu.

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

Last year, Otedola acquired significant control of FBN Holdings when he announced he had acquired shareholdings above the five percent threshold.

Transcorp’s single majority shareholder with controlling stakes may make it difficult to see a repeat of the FBN Holdings acquisition, analysts told the newspaper.