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First Holdings Company Plc, parent of First Bank of Nigeria, on Friday formally notified the Nigerian Exchange Limited of the block 6,314,116,229 shares sold two days earlier by Barbican Capital Limited linked to Ayoola Oba Otudeko, a significant shareholder and former chairman of the group.
The shares sold on Wednesday, July 16, 2025 at N31.00 each, with a cumulative value of N195.737 billion, were part of an unprecedented 11.67 billion units valued at ₦363.412 billion that changed hands in 36,635 deals.
First HoldCo accounted for 10.467 billion units or 89.69 percent of that volume, valued at ₦324.473 billion, in what market hearsay initially linked to a major consolidation involving current chairman of the financial services conglomerate- Mr. Olufemi Otedola and Otudeko, his predecessor and long-term chairman of the group, in what was said to have raised the former’s stake in the group to 40 per cent.
New findings partly confirmed by the latest filing on the NGX however showed that whereas Otudeko’s Barbican Capital indeed sold its shares, Otedola may not have been the beneficiary.
According to emerging media reports, the shares were actually acquired by a trustee under a custodial arrangement on the instruction of the Office of the Attorney General, in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
It was not also yet known at of the time of going to press, what the outcome of this arrangement is, just as First HoldCo is expected to report the fate of the balance of the shares sold on Wednesday subsequently through the NGX.
While Otudeko is believed to have sold the over 20 per cent stake linked to him, the Hassan-Odukale family is also believed to have voluntarily sold its 2.28 billion units or five percent, held by Leadway Holdings Limited, Leadway Assurance Company, and UBAPC/Leadway Pensure PFA Ltd.
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