By Chinwendu Obienyi
The messy debt squabble between Ecobank Nigeria Limited and former Chairman, FBN Holdings Plc, Oba Otudeko, has reportedly triggered a major hit on its shares leading to the loss of about 13.59 per cent in two consecutive trading sessions at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX).
This is coming after Otudeko was alleged to be behind the 4 billion shares of FBN Holdings transacted at stock market last week. The development had ratcheted up allegations over the validity of the trades considering that no single shareholder officially owned as many shares.
Daily Sun investigations revealed that the group’s 2022 audited accounts showed that FBN Holdings has about 35.8 billion shares outstanding, with about 12.2 per cent of the shares traded and with bank’s last audited accounts listing billionaire investor, Femi Otedola as the highest shareholder of the bank with a direct and indirect holdings of 5.57 per cent.
But market analysts have been pondering how a sale of that magnitude was consummated on the assumption that no shareholder had enough shares to sell, talk less of the 12.2 per cent that was traded.
A source with knowledge of the transaction who pleaded anonymity had informed Daily Sun that the sale was to Barbican Securities Ltd.
Apparently miffed about the development especially as Otudeko is still in court over the pending Ecobank appeal at the Supreme Court over the implementation of liquidation proceedings against Honeywell Plc, of which Oba Otudeko was the majority owner, the bank through its lawyers; Kunle Ogunba and Associates in a letter to the FBN Holdings, accused Otudeko of personally diverting his assets/funds and those of the debtor companies using Barbican Capital Limited as a “special purpose vehicle”.
In response to the letter, Wole Olanipekun & Co, the legal representatives of Dr. Oba Otudeko, Chairman of Honeywell Group Limited, urged FBN Holdings Plc to disregard the requests made in Ecobank’s letter.
The development has led to divided opinions among majority shareholders of FBN Holdings Plc as Daily Sun learnt some groups are believed to be joining forces to fight off Oba Otudeko from reclaiming control of the bank holding company.
Amid the drama in FBN Holdings, shareholders were at the receiving end, as their investments fell by 10 per cent at the close of trading on Wednesday. The drop represents a loss of N63 billion in the total investments held by FBN Holdings’ shareholders.
It was also learnt that the total market valuation of FBN Holdings fell to N710.72 billion from N771.74 billion reported on Tuesday.
Operators who spoke to Daily Sun said that they are expecting the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to respond to the debacle.