BY KENNETH EZE
Equities of FBN Holdings Plc. remained toast of investors, on Monday at the Nigerian Exchange Limited, as they ended the day as the most traded stock.
This signals the market’s reaction, the first trading day after the bank officially admitted that a billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, had acquired a 5.07 per cent shareholding in the company.
THE POINT reports that the holding company for First Bank of Nigeria Limited, on Saturday, informed the NGX and the investing public that Otedola acquired a 5.07 per cent shareholding of its shares directly and through his nominee, Calvados Global Services Limited.
Market watchers had mooted that strategic investors in FBN Holdings, including Otedola and the company’s Chairman, Tunde Hassan-Odukale, might have been behind the company’s significant trading volume on Monday.
The high investors’ appetite for the stock had seen FBN Holdings account for 51.97 per cent of the total number of shares traded and 57.24 per cent of the total value of shares traded on the floor of the NGX at the end of the day’s trading.
THE POINT also reports that the news of the acquisition of 5.07 per cent of FBN Holdings’ issued share capital by Otedola lit up the Nigerian capital and money markets over the weekend.
In the same vein, trading data from the NGX also showed that the share price of FBN Holdings rose by 2.45 per cent to close at N12.55 on Monday from N12.25 per share, where it closed on Friday.
From the data, 350.54 million of the 674.5 million shares exchanged on the floor of the NGX were of FBN Holdings.
Investment Analysts noted that equities of FBNH had been subject to huge patronage for weeks, leading up to the announcement of Otedola’s position.
Word around the capital market circles indicated that other directors of the bank, would move to consolidate their shareholding in the bid to improve their voting power as the quest for the control of the bank hots up.
THE POINT also reports that 2018 was the last time FBN Holdings’ share price hit its current level.
