Femi Otedola Raises First HoldCo Stake to 20.42%

Billionaire investor and Chairman of First HoldCo Plc, Femi Otedola, has increased his stake in the financial services group to 20.42 percent after acquiring about 680 million additional shares through the company’s recently completed private placement.

The acquisition was reported after FirstHoldCo concluded a ₦45 billion second tranche of its ongoing ₦350 billion private placement programme.

According to a private placement allotment document cited by Nairametrics, Otedola was allotted 672.9 million shares valued at about ₦29.6 billion. A source familiar with the transaction was also quoted as saying that Otedola acquired about 680.8 million shares, investing close to ₦30 billion in the holding company.

The latest purchase further strengthens Otedola’s position as the largest shareholder in First HoldCo, the parent company of First Bank of Nigeria Limited.

The shares in the private placement were issued at ₦44.06 per share. The price was below First HoldCo’s recent market price, with the stock closing at ₦60.50 per share before the disclosure. The company’s shares have traded between about ₦49 and ₦83 so far this year.

FirstHoldCo had earlier announced that it completed the ₦45 billion private placement after securing approvals from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company said the proceeds from the placement will be injected into First Bank of Nigeria Limited as part of the bank’s capital restoration plan and wider balance sheet strengthening programme.

The fresh capital is expected to support FirstBank’s lending capacity, digital banking expansion, transaction banking business, and operations across corporate, commercial, retail, and cross border banking markets.

FirstHoldCo said the completed tranche forms part of the broader ₦350 billion private placement programme approved by shareholders at its 13th Annual General Meeting in May 2025.

The group had previously injected about ₦270 billion into FirstBank. With the latest ₦45 billion placement, the total capital injection into the bank rises further as the group continues to meet regulatory capital requirements and strengthen its banking subsidiary.

Nairametrics reported that Otedola and another institutional shareholder acquired about 90 percent of the completed ₦45 billion private placement. The report said the funds raised increased the bank’s share capital to about ₦525.6 billion.

The development comes weeks after FirstHoldCo shareholders approved a plan to raise additional capital and move the company’s paid up share capital toward ₦1 trillion.

That approval was granted at the company’s 14th Annual General Meeting held on May 29, 2026. The approval allows the group to raise funds through instruments including public offers, private placements, rights issues, bonus issues, scrip dividends, and other equity options in domestic and international markets.

FirstHoldCo said the capital plan is aimed at strengthening its regulatory capital position and improving the capacity of FirstBank to compete in the Nigerian banking industry.

Otedola has continued to increase his interest in FirstHoldCo over the past year.

In May 2026, he acquired 549.5 million FirstHoldCo shares valued at about ₦43.4 billion through Calvados Global Services Limited, a company linked to him. That transaction was executed on the Nigerian Exchange at ₦79 per share.

The May purchase raised his holding to about 19.35 percent, equivalent to 8.60 billion shares out of 44.45 billion ordinary shares outstanding, according to market data cited at the time.

Before then, Otedola had also increased his stake in December 2025 with the purchase of 370 million shares valued at about ₦14.8 billion. In September 2025, he acquired another 64.9 million shares valued at about ₦2 billion.

His latest acquisition through the private placement now takes his stake to 20.42 percent.

The increase comes at a time when FirstHoldCo is reporting stronger earnings.

For the first quarter of 2026, the group reported profit before tax of ₦321.1 billion, representing a 72.2 percent year on year increase from ₦186.5 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2025.

The group also reported gross earnings of ₦942.0 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 26.8 percent from ₦742.7 billion in the same period of 2025.

Customer deposits stood at ₦18.4 trillion, while the group said FirstBank continued to benefit from its deposit franchise and low cost funding base.

The company said the capital raise would improve FirstBank’s financial resilience and expand its balance sheet capacity.

FirstBank is the flagship banking subsidiary of FirstHoldCo and one of Nigeria’s oldest financial institutions. The group has been implementing capital strengthening measures following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s revised capital requirements for banks.

Under the CBN recapitalisation framework, banks with international authorisation are required to meet a minimum capital base of ₦500 billion, while national and regional banks have lower thresholds.

FirstHoldCo said the latest private placement further supports FirstBank’s ability to remain above the minimum regulatory capital requirement.

The company has also said it remains committed to raising the outstanding balance under its broader ₦350 billion private placement programme.

According to reports, another tranche of the private placement is being planned and could be priced close to the ₦44 per share paid by investors in the completed round.

The fresh acquisition by Otedola adds to ongoing changes in FirstHoldCo’s ownership structure following a series of large share transactions in recent years.

The latest transaction also reinforces Otedola’s control position within the group as FirstHoldCo continues its capital raising programme and balance sheet strengthening exercise.