Billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, has been listed as the largest shareholder of First Bank of Nigeria Holdings Plc, despite the acquisition of 4.7 billion units of FBNH shares by the former chairman of the group, Oba Otudeko, in July.

This was revealed in the unaudited consolidated financial statements for the period ended September 30, 2023, of the financial institution filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited.

FBN Holdings stated in a statement issued on July 7 that “the company received a notification from Honeywell Group Limited that its affiliate, Barbican Capital Limited, has acquired an aggregate of 4,770,269,843 units of shares from the company’s issued share capital of 35,895,292,791, (35.89 billion) as at the above-referenced date.

“Based on the foregoing, the equity stake of Barbican Capital Limited in the company is 13.3 per cent.”

Both Honeywell Group and Barbican Capital are linked to Otudeko.

FBN Holdings, in its latest report, still listed Otedola as the largest shareholder with a stake above five per cent. Directly, Otedola holds 40,033,982 units of FBN Holdings shares, which is 0.11 per cent and indirectly, it holds 1,989,342,376 units which is 5.54 per cent of the lender’s shareholding as of September 2023.

Otudeko’s share acquisition elicited reactions from the stakeholders in the capital market with minority shareholders calling for a probe by the regulators.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has said that it was investigating the deal.

The Central Bank of Nigeria removed Otudeko in April 2021 as FBNH’s non-executive director/chairman and sacked the board under him over noncompliance with regulatory control.