Nigerian tycoon Samuel Bolarinde's Vitafoam stake hits $25.3 million after 747% share surge

The man who ran Vitafoam Nigeria until 2002 now holds a stake in it worth ₦35.16 billion, about $25.3 million, after one of the sharpest share price runs on the Nigerian Exchange.

Samuel Olaniyi Bolarinde owns 180,513,482 ordinary shares, or 12.03% of the foam manufacturer. At ₦194.80 a share, close to the stock's all-time high, that position has more than quadrupled in value since the start of last year.

Vitafoam opened 2025 at ₦23.00. It reached ₦90 by December, a gain of 291%, and has since more than doubled again. The cumulative move is 747% across nineteen months. The company carries a market value of ₦292.40 billion, roughly $210.4 million, against ₦112.6 billion in December.

The rally has an earnings story behind it rather than sentiment alone.

Vitafoam closed its 2025 financial year, which ended on September 30, with profit after tax of ₦14.54 billion, about $10.5 million. That was an increase of 1,427% on the ₦952.2 million recorded in 2024. Revenue rose 34.8% to ₦111.38 billion, or $80.1 million.

Two things drove the reversal. Higher pricing and volumes across foams, mattresses and pillows lifted the top line, while foreign exchange losses that had wrecked the previous year fell sharply as the naira steadied.

The first quarter of the 2026 financial year continued the trend. Revenue reached ₦31.7 billion, up from ₦28.8 billion, and pre-tax profit rose to ₦1.53 billion from ₦1.18 billion. Finance costs fell to ₦517 million from ₦1.17 billion, a reduction of more than half that flowed almost entirely to the bottom line.

The balance sheet has followed. Total assets grew to ₦70.04 billion, about $50.4 million, at December 31 from ₦65.27 billion a year earlier. Shareholders' equity rose to ₦39.3 billion from ₦35.5 billion, and retained earnings to ₦30.07 billion from ₦25.9 billion.

Even after the run, the stock does not look expensive against its peers. Vitafoam trades on a price to earnings ratio of about 11.6 times, against a peer average close to 39 times, according to Simply Wall St. Trailing twelve-month earnings per share stand at ₦11.71 and EBITDA at ₦31.19 billion, on a margin of 26.2%.

Bolarinde's connection to the company runs longer than his shareholding suggests. He served as managing director and chief executive until his retirement in March 2002, then chaired the board for a further eleven years until 2013. He has continued to hold a substantial position since stepping away from the boardroom.

His career extended well beyond foam. He chaired Wema Bank between 2009 and 2012, sat on the board of National Bank of Nigeria from 1999 to 2003, served at Nigerian Breweries, and has held interests in Best Oils Nigeria. The combination of manufacturing and banking directorships made him one of the more widely connected industrialists of his generation, though he has kept a low public profile throughout.

Vitafoam itself was incorporated in 1962 and is based in Lagos. It manufactures flexible and rigid polyurethane foam, fibre products and textile linens, operating through foam products and furniture divisions, and supplies real estate, healthcare, hospitality, oil and gas, automotive and agricultural customers. It employs 681 people.

Its reach extends past Nigeria through subsidiaries in Ghana and Sierra Leone, with the Sierra Leonean operation exporting into Guinea and Liberia. Revenue from outside Nigeria remains small, at ₦1.19 billion in the most recent quarter, and slipped slightly year on year while domestic sales grew.

That concentration cuts both ways. It gave Vitafoam full exposure to a Nigerian consumer market that has absorbed two years of inflation and currency devaluation, and it leaves the company dependent on a single economy for almost everything it earns.

Bolarinde's stake was worth roughly ₦4.5 billion five years ago. It is now worth close to eight times that.