Some shareholders demonstrated at FBN Holdings’ headquarters on Monday against an attempt to prevent the financial company from holding its Annual General Meeting as planned.
Minority shareholders assembled in front of the headquarters held placards and urged that the institution be let fulfill its legal obligation to host AGMs.
The head of the Trusted Shareholders’ Association, Mukhtar Mukhtar, spoke on behalf of the protesting shareholders and expressed disappointment in the attempt to prevent the AGM from taking place.
“We are here at the First Bank office to express our displeasure, our discontentment, and our rejection of the attempt by some shareholders to prevent the Annual General Meeting of First Bank from taking place and from precluding the consideration of some very important resolutions for the development of the bank,” he said.
“These shareholders have filed a lawsuit with the court to prevent First Bank from raising capital in the same manner as other banks and to prevent the bank’s board of directors from appointing certain directors.
In a notification released in July, FBN Holdings stated that subject to shareholder approval at the Annual General Meeting scheduled for this month, it sought to raise new capital through a rights issue.
The lender stated that it planned to raise money by issuing 8.974 billion ordinary shares at a price of 50 kobo each.
As a non-executive director, a wealthy investor, Mr. Femi Otedola, has been appointed by the firm, subject to the approval of its shareholders at the next AGM. The appointment day for Otedola was July 9, 2023.
The shareholders will be asked to approve the nomination of Samson Ariyibi, who was named the executive director of the group’s Finance, Investment, Management, and Oversight on October 21, 2022.
