Entities linked to Oba Otudeko and Tunde Hassan-Odukale sold a total of 10.433 billion First Holdco shares to a relatively unknown company- RC Investments Management Limited, in a deal valued at N323.45 billion, the highest off-market transaction ever seen on the NGX.
According to documents obtained by BusinessDay, the buyer company is linked to one Samuel Babatunde Sule. Sule’s RC Investment acquired approximately 7.787 billion shares from Barbican Capital and RAML, entities associated with Oba Otudeko.
RC Investments also bought 2.647 billion shares from entities related to the former chairman of First Bank of Nigeria, Tunde Hassan-Odukale. The entities include Leadway Holdings, Leadway Pensure PFA, Haskal Holdings, and Leadway/NNPC Staff Pension Investment.
Sule also has ties to four other companies, namely RC Africa Limited, Avuso Payment, Odde Properties, and Green Arrow Services Limited.
The sale was brokered by the CBN to help resolve a leadership tussle at the helm of the bank that has served as a major distraction for the bank’s capital raising plans.
While First Holdco has consistently acknowledged Otudeko’s 8.65 percent stake in the bank, the remaining 9.94 percent has long been the subject of a dispute with him and the CBN. The transaction will see Otudeko cash out N241.4 billion while also marking his exit from First Holdco. Odukale and his associated companies will cash out N82.1 billion.
Read also: The business odyssey of Oba Otudeko: A journey of vision, valour and victory
Oba Otudeko served as the bank’s then group’s chairman between 1997 and 2021. And with this transaction, it is believed that the curtain has been drawn on Otudeko’s era at First Bank. The octogenarian, who led the group’s board for nearly 24 years, is set to make a quiet departure.
On July 16, First Holdco’s share price rallied by 9.90 percent to close at N32.20.
