Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc has announced that Seven Degrees North Limited, a private investment firm associated with its chief executive officer, Yemi Odubiyi, acquired shares valued at ₦578.1 million.

The disclosure to the Nigerian Exchange stated that 82 million ordinary shares were bought at ₦7.05 per share on the NGX trading floor in Lagos.

The deal, recorded under transaction code NGSTERLNHCO9, was carried out in two batches on December 24 and December 29, 2025.

The first tranche saw the acquisition of 62 million shares, followed by a second tranche of 20 million shares, with both purchases executed at ₦7.05 per share.

However, Sterling Financial Holdings’ nine-month 2025 financial statements, released in late October 2025, showed that Mr Yemi Odubiyi had no indirect shareholding in the company at that time.

That position has since changed, with Mr Odubiyi now holding 82,000,000 indirect shares through Seven Degrees North Limited.

His direct shareholding has also risen sharply, increasing from 376,417,493 units in December 2024 to 729,420,773 units by September 2025.

Altogether, Mr Odubiyi now controls 811,420,773 shares, representing a 1.56 per cent stake, based on Sterling Financial Holdings’ outstanding share capital of 52.1 billion units on the Nigerian Exchange.

Meanwhile, the chairman, Mr Adeyemi Adeola, remains the largest shareholder on the board, with 12,256,865,434 units, equivalent to a 23.52 per cent stake.

Sterling has returned more than 25% to investors this year, climbing from an opening price of ₦5.60 at the start of the year to ₦7.05 by the final trading day of 2025.

The stock opened the year on a positive note, ending January with a 3.57 per cent gain as the share price rose from ₦5.60 to ₦5.80.

This was followed by a mild pullback that persisted until April, when the price slipped to ₦5.40.

Momentum picked up from May, pushing th. stock to ₦5.70 by the end of June and delivering a modest first-half gain of 1.79 per cent.