Shares of FBN Holdings Plc (FirstHoldco) have surged by more than 20% in just two trading sessions, driven by heightened investor speculation following a massive off-market transaction involving over 10.4 billion shares.
The stock, which closed at N29.30 on Monday, July 14, jumped to N32.20 on Wednesday and extended its rally to N35.40 in early morning trading on Thursday, July 17.
This price movement reflects growing market interest in a significant change in the company’s ownership structure.
On Wednesday, July 16, 2025, a major negotiated deal was executed on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), where 10,433,909,058 units of FirstHoldco shares were traded off-market at N31.00 per share across seventeen transactions.
The transaction, valued at approximately N323.33 billion, represents about 25% ownership in the group, which currently has 41.87 billion outstanding shares, making it one of the largest single-day block trades in the market this year.
Prior to the transaction, there were three well-known major shareholders in the banking group: Oba Otudeko, Femi Otedola, and Tunde Hassan-Odukale.
Several other shareholders also hold sizeable, though not classified as significant, stakes.
Under extant NGX rules, a significant stake is defined as a holding of 5% or more of a company’s outstanding shares.
Although the negotiated trade window on the NGX allows buyers and sellers with large transactions to pre-arrange terms, including price and transfer of shares, outside the ordinary market’s price discovery mechanism, such trades are still brought to the exchange for formal execution and transfer of ownership.
However, fresh insider information available to Nairametrics reveals that entities linked to Oba Otudeko and Tunde Hassan-Odukale sold the 10.433 billion FirstHoldco shares to a relatively unknown company — RC Investment Management Limited.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the buyer, RC Investment, is linked to one Samuel Babatunde Sule. The company reportedly acquired approximately 7.787 billion shares from Barbican Capital and RAML, both entities associated with Oba Otudeko.
In addition, RC Investment purchased 2.647 billion shares from entities related to the former Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria, Tunde Hassan-Odukale. These entities include Hassan-Odukale himself, Leadway Holdings, Leadway Pensure PFA, Haskal Holdings, and Leadway/NNPC Staff Pension Investment.
The recent developments in FirstHoldco signal a potential realignment of control within Nigeria’s oldest banking group, and investors are responding accordingly.
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