The stock exchange reported that 4.7 billion shares of First Bank of Nigeria Holdings were exchanged on Thursday, the most in a single day since 2012.
According to BusinessDay, the shares were sold for N19 each, totaling N87.8 billion which represents 13% of Nigeria’s oldest bank’s outstanding market value, indicating the significance of the transaction.
Although there have been reports linking the increase in shares to the bank’s former chairman, Oba Otudeko, First Bank did not respond to any email requesting comment.
Otudeko, who controlled 1.49 percent of First Bank shares in 2021, was the bank’s chairman until 2019 when the Central Bank of Nigeria disbanded the bank’s board following charges of insider trading that brought the bank’s corporate governance into doubt.
After a battle with a member of the bank’s board and CEO of Leadway Assurance, Hassan Odukale, who was also seeking control of the bank after Otudeko’s exit, billionaire Nigerian investor, Femi Otedola became the bank’s single largest shareholder in 2021.
