Tony Elumelu, a Nigerian multimillionaire businessman and philanthropist, has lost more than N2.9 billion ($7.1 million) from his stake in United Bank for Africa (UBA) in the past 126 days, as shares in the Lagos-based lender have fallen from record highs.
UBA is a Nigerian financial services provider with operations in 20 African countries, as well as the UK, United States, and France.
With a market capitalization of N260 billion ($626.2 million), the bank is the 15th most valuable company on the Nigerian Exchange, accounting for around 0.913 percent of the Nigerian Exchange equity market capitalization.
Shares in the leading financial services group were worth N7.6 ($0.0183) per share as of press time on June 16, 65 basis points lower than their opening price on the local bourse yesterday.
Elumelu, one of Africa’s most powerful businessmen who was instrumental in UBA’s growth and expansion as a pan-African bank, owns a sizable 6.96-percent stake in the banking group, equivalent to 2,380,941,756 ordinary shares.
Since Feb. 10, when the bank’s shares closed at a record high price of N8.85 ($0.021) per share, the market value of Elumelu’s 6.96-percent stake has fallen from N21.07 billion ($50.75 million) to N18.1 billion ($43.58 million) at the time of writing this report, resulting in a total loss of N2.98 billion ($7.17 million) for the multimillionaire businessman in 126 days.
The multimillion-dollar loss on his stake can be attributed to a drop in the bank’s share price from N8.85 ($0.0213) on Feb. 10 to N7.6 ($0.0183) at the opening of the local bourse this morning, resulting in a total 14.1-percent loss for shareholders.
Following a strong performance in 2021, UBA reported an 8.8-percent increase in profit from N38.2 billion ($92 million) in the first quarter of 2021 to N41.5 billion ($100 million) in the same period of 2022.
The increase in profit in the first quarter of 2022 was driven by an 18.3-percent increase in gross earnings from N155.4 billion ($374.1 million) to N183.9 billion ($442.7 million).
The strong financial performance puts the Elumelu-led financial services group in a strong position to increase earnings by the end of 2022.
