April 13, (THEWILL) – Billionaire businessman, Mr. Femi Otedola has bought 5.5 percent stake in Transnational Corporation Plc (Transcorp), quoted under the tourism sector of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).
With this stake, Otedola has emerged the largest single individual shareholder in the publicly traded diversified conglomerate presently chaired by Mr. Tony Elumelu.
Sources at the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX), disclosed that the billionaire now owns about 2.245 billion shares, representing 5.52per cent of the company.
Based on data from the firm’s audited financial statement for period ended December 31, 2022, Elumelu, current chairman of Transcorp owned 273,104,041 issued share capital in the company.
He also held 293,983,193 shares indirectly through HH Capital Limited and 273,545,722 shares are held indirectly through Heirs Holdings Limited.
The share structure also showed that Dr. Stanley Lawson, a Non-Executive Director of Transcrop Corporation owned 122,790,102 direct issued share capital, while Mrs. Owen Omogiafo, the President had 12,634,188 interest in the diversified conglomerate.
The only other shareholder with over five per cent ownership of the company is UBA Nominees which owns about 9.25per cent of the company as of 2022 from 9.26 per cent reported in 2021.
“As at December 31, 2022, only UBA Nominees Limited-Trading, held five per cent or more of the issued and fully paid shares of 50 kobo of the Company,” according to the 2022 audited result and accounts posted on the NGX.
The financial statement showed that no other shareholder held above five per cent according to records. The company also has about 39.65 billion out of its 40.65 billion outstanding shares on a free float. In fact, 1,695 people own about 89per cent of the company’s shares.
It could be recalled that Femi Otedola also acquired significant control of FBN Holdings early last year when he announced he had acquired shareholdings above the five per cent threshold.
The development immediately triggered a bidding war for the stock. However, unlike FBN Holdings, Transcorp has a single majority shareholder with control of the company.
Otedola also owns close to 90per cent stake in Geregu Power Plc which it listed on the Exchange last year. It is unclear if the latest acquisition is aimed at doubling down his investment in the power sector.
Transcorp is currently controlled by billionaire investor, Elumelu who took over control of the company in 2012. Since then the company has gone on to acquire a power generation company and branched into the oil and gas sectors of the economy.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
