Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola gains more than $6.8 million in past six days from First Bank stake

Omokolade Ajayi -

Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola has seen the market value of his stake in First Bank of Nigeria Holdings Plc (FBNH) rise by N2.85 billion ($6.87 million) in the past six days, as investors react to the bank’s impressive financial results at the end of 2021.

FBN Holdings is one of Nigeria’s largest financial services conglomerates. It is the non-operating holding company for First Bank of Nigeria Limited, the country’s oldest commercial bank with active operations in 10 countries.

Otedola is the largest stakeholder in the premier financial services provider, owning 7.57 percent of the tier-one lender, or 2,717,282,140 ordinary shares.

As of press time on May 31, shares in the leading financial services group were trading at N11.60 ($0.02794), 2.11-percent lower than their opening price on the local bourse this morning.

Since May 25, the bank’s shares have risen from N10.55 ($0.02541) per share to N11.6 ($0.02794) per share at the time of writing, representing a 9.95-percent gain for shareholders over the past six days.

The market value of Otedola’s 7.57-percent stake in FBNH has increased from N28.67 billion ($69.04 million) on May 25 to N31.52 billion ($75.91 million) on May 31 as a result of the recent uptick. This amounts to a total gain of N2.85 billion ($6.87 million) for the billionaire businessman in the past six days.

With the recent increase in its market capitalization, FBNH is now the thirteenth most valuable stock on the Nigerian Exchange, with a market capitalization of N425 billion, ($1.021 billion), accounting for about 1.47 percent of the total share market capitalization of the Nigerian Exchange.

The recent increase in FBNH’s share price can be linked to investor reactions to its full-year profit in 2021, which increased by 99.9 percent from N75.6 billion ($182 million) in 2020 to N151.1 billion ($363.7 million) at the end of 2021, owing to strong performance from its banking, operations, pension, and investment banking sectors.

As a result of the strong performance, the bank’s total assets increased 16.2 percent to N8.9 trillion ($21.4 billion) from N7.7 trillion ($18.5 billion) driven by a 30-percent increase in customer loans and a 26.3-percent increase in the value of its investment securities.