Zenith Bank’s share price has fallen by nearly double digits since the beginning of September, resulting in losses of millions of dollars for shareholders such as Jim Ovia, the leading Nigerian banking executive who founded the financial services group more than three decades ago.
According to data tracked by Billionaires.Africa, the market value of Ovia’s stake has dropped by N9.38 billion ($21.96 million) in the past 11 days as shares in the group fell by more than eight percent.
Zenith Bank is a leading financial services provider in Nigeria and Anglophone West Africa. It is Nigeria’s most profitable bank and the largest listed financial services group on the Nigerian Exchange.
Ovia, who founded the tier-one bank in 1990 and was instrumental in both the evolution and the digital transformation of the Nigerian banking sector, owns a significant 16.2-percent stake in the bank, or 5,072,104,311 ordinary shares.
Shares in the group have fallen from N21.9 ($0.0513) on Aug. 31 to N20.05 ($0.0469) on Sept. 11, resulting in a total loss of 8.45 percent for shareholders.
The market value of Ovia’s stake has dropped by more than N9.38 billion ($21.96 million) as a result of the recent decline in the bank’s shares, falling from N111.08 billion ($259.96 million) at the start of this month to N101.7 billion ($238 million) at the time of writing this report.
The recent decline in the market value of his holding in Zenith Bank brings his year-to-date loss to N26.6 billion ($62.32 million). Despite the loss, Ovia remains one of the richest investors on the Nigerian Exchange, and also one of Nigeria’s wealthiest men.
To pare down his losses, Ovia is on course to receive an interim dividend of N1.52 billion ($3.6 million) from his stake in Zenith Bank.
In addition to his previous earnings this year, the $3.6-million interim dividend brings his total Zenith Bank dividend earnings this year to N15.72 billion ($17.7 million).
