Billionaire Femi Otedola's First HoldCo becomes Nigeria's most valuable bank at $4.22 billion

First HoldCo has become the most valuable banking stock on the Nigerian Exchange, and the chairman who spent four years assembling control of it is now sitting on close to a billion dollars.

The lender closed Tuesday at a market capitalisation of ₦5.78 trillion, about $4.22 billion, overtaking every rival on the exchange. Zenith Bank finished at ₦5.2 trillion, or $3.80 billion, and Guaranty Trust Holding Company at ₦4.82 trillion, or $3.52 billion. United Bank for Africa closed at ₦2.08 trillion, or $1.52 billion, and Access Holdings at ₦1.47 trillion, or $1.07 billion.

Shares ended the session at ₦127, or about nine cents, against ₦47.9 at the close of 2025. The stock has gained ₦79.1 a share this year, a rise of 165%.

What Otedola holds

Femi Otedola controlled 9,983,923,216 shares, or 21.95% of the company, after buying a further 706,131,179 shares through his vehicle Calvados Global Services on July 22.

At Tuesday's close that holding is worth ₦1.268 trillion, or roughly $925.6 million.

The position was built in stages and the pace has accelerated. He held 6.68 billion shares, or 15.95%, at the end of June 2025, split between 3.21 billion held directly and 3.47 billion indirectly, when the company had 41.88 billion shares in issue. By March 31 this year he had reached 8.06 billion shares, or 18.12%, comprising 3.25 billion direct and 4.80 billion indirect, against an enlarged capital of 44.45 billion shares.

Three months later he stood at 9.28 billion shares and 20.40%, an increase of roughly 1.22 billion shares in a single quarter. The indirect holdings did the work, rising to 6.03 billion from 4.80 billion, while the direct position held at 3.25 billion. The July purchase took him past 21.9%.

The earnings behind the rally

The share price move rests on a set of numbers the market had not expected.

First HoldCo reported pre-tax profit of ₦653.54 billion, about $477.1 million, for the first half of 2026. That is an increase of 83.5% on the ₦356.15 billion, or $260.0 million, recorded a year earlier. Profit after tax rose 81.57% to ₦526.13 billion, roughly $384.1 million.

The second quarter carried most of it. Pre-tax profit for the three months to June nearly doubled to ₦332.42 billion, about $242.7 million, from ₦169.67 billion, or $123.9 million, in the same quarter of 2025.

The results were published on July 20. The shares gained 10% in intraday trading that day to ₦105.50, taking market capitalisation to about ₦4.80 trillion and handing the bank the top position among Nigerian lenders for the first time. It has added a further ₦980 billion of value in the eight sessions since.

An old bank in new hands

First HoldCo is the holding company for First Bank of Nigeria, the oldest financial institution in the country, founded in 1894.

Otedola has said repeatedly that the money he has committed is his own rather than borrowed. He became chairman after a protracted contest for influence over the register, and the accumulation since has been steady rather than opportunistic, running through periods when the stock was flat and the bank was recovering from a difficult stretch.

The scale of the paper gain is now considerable. Against a running cost of roughly ₦328 billion across the purchases disclosed to date, by Billionaires.Africa's calculation, the holding has appreciated close to fourfold.

Whether the rally holds depends on whether the second-quarter earnings prove repeatable. The bank has not issued guidance for the second half.