Mr Otedola executed the share purchase through the N45 billion second tranche of the lender’s N350 billion private placement programme.
Billionaire tycoon Femi Otedola has acquired 672.9 million new shares in financial services group First HoldCo Plc, taking his interest in the group to 20.4 per cent.
Mr Otedola executed the share purchase through the N45 billion second tranche of the lender’s N350 billion private placement programme, Nairametrics reported on Thursday, citing the allotment document.
The private placement offer price of N44 per share puts the value of the transaction at N29.6 billion. That compares to the stock’s closing price of N61 per share on Thursday.
First HoldCo is looking to inject the cash raised from the exercise into First Bank of Nigeria Limited, its commercial banking division, as part of its capital restoration plan and broader balance sheet strengthening programme, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
The group is on a drive to scale its paid-up capital to N1 trillion, having secured shareholders’ consent to do so at its last annual general meeting held in May.
“Following the successful completion of this second tranche of the N350 billion Private Placement programme approved at the 13th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on May 22, 2025, FirstHoldCo remains committed to raise the outstanding N221 billion,” First Holdco said.
The group said it had previously injected roughly N270 billion in First Bank, helping it meet the N500 billion minimum capital requirement for banks with international authorisation under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s recapitalisation directive ahead of the 31 March 2026 deadline.
Mr Otedola, who is the chair of the financial institution’s board of directors, has been heaping up shares in the banking group since he emerged as its top shareholder in 2021.
In May, he procured 549.5 million shares at N79 per unit in a deal estimated at N43.4 billion, according to a regulatory filing at the Nigerian Exchange. He acquired the shares through Calvados Global Services Limited, his special purpose acquisition,
Last December, he purchased 370 million shares of First HoldCo at N40.1 each, a transaction valued at N14.8 billion.
Earlier in September 2025, he bought 64.9 million shares valued at N2 billion in the banking group: 39.3 million units worth N1.2 billion in his own name and 25.6 million units worth N792.5 million via Calvados Global Services.
Mr Otedola’s former closest rivals in the top ownership of First HoldCo, Oba Otudeko and Oye Hassan-Odukale, abruptly sold off their stakes in the group last July.
As many as 10.4 billion shares, equivalent to almost 25 per cent of the group’s entire ordinary shares, were traded off-market in 17 deals on a single day, a trader told PREMIUM TIMES at the time.
Mr Otudeko controls Barbican Capital Limited, while Mr Odukale is the CEO of Leadway Assurance Company Limited.
Mr Otedola became the chair of the board of directors of First HoldCo in January 2024. Before venturing into banking, he was the majority owner of African Petroleum, which later became Forte Oil and is now known as Ardova Plc.
In December 2025, Mr Otedola divested his holding in Lagos-listed Geregu Power in a deal valued at $750 million.
Last month, he disclosed plans to invest $100 million in Dangote Petroleum Refinery through private placement.
