Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola signals he wants 51% of First HoldCo after investing $432 million

Femi Otedola has signalled that he intends to take majority control of First HoldCo, telling Nairametrics that his investment threshold is always above 51% and that he is following the same path at Nigeria's most valuable bank.

"I am sure that you can see from my antecedents that my investment threshold is always over and above 51 percent," he said in his first interview since becoming chairman. "One of my key investment principles is that firm shareholder control with due regard for minority interest is a key ingredient to executing reforms and restructuring to deliver value to all stakeholders."

He added: "I am on the same trajectory with First Holdco Plc."

Otedola holds 11,956,589,264 shares, or 25.87% of the company. Reaching 51% would require roughly 11.6 billion additional shares, costing about ₦1.59 trillion, or $1.15 billion, at Monday's record intraday price of ₦137.20, by Billionaires.Africa's calculation.

He would trigger a legal obligation well before that. Under the Investments and Securities Act 2025 and the Securities and Exchange Commission's Rules on Mergers, Takeovers and Acquisitions, an investor crossing 30% of a listed company must make a mandatory offer for the remainder unless the commission grants an exemption. That threshold sits near 13.87 billion shares, about 1.91 billion above his current position.

What he has spent

Otedola disclosed a figure he had not previously made public.

"To date, I have invested over ₦600 Billion of my personal wealth in First Holdco Plc," he said, "a figure that speaks not to speculation, but to unflinching confidence in the institution's future."

That is roughly $432 million. His holding was worth about ₦1.64 trillion, or $1.18 billion, at Monday's high, implying a paper gain of more than ₦1 trillion, about $748 million, on what he has put in.

First HoldCo passed ₦6 trillion in market value on Monday, the first Nigerian bank to do so. It overtook Zenith Bank on July 20 to become the country's most valuable lender.

The precedents he cited

Otedola pointed to two previous companies where he built controlling stakes before exiting.

At African Petroleum, later Forte Oil, he raised his holding from 28% to 75% before selling in 2019. At Geregu Power he went from 51% to 95%, then to 77% after the 2022 listing. "Our controlling stakes gave us the support structure required to execute our transformation and restructuring mandates," he said.

He was direct that First HoldCo is a different proposition from either.

"First Holdco is a long-term generational commitment unlike my previous involvement(s)," he said, citing the bank's 130-year history, its systemic importance, and an industry he described as largely free of government interference.

The state he found it in

Otedola gave his fullest account yet of what he bought into.

He described an institution on the brink, with more than ₦2 trillion in bad loans and a culture of what he called recalcitrant and delinquent debtors who treated the bank as an outlet to exploit. The Central Bank of Nigeria dissolved the entire board in 2021, citing breaches of directives, unresolved insider exposures and a leadership transition executed without regulatory approval.

He said the group has impaired more than ₦3 trillion over the past decade, including a single ₦1.70 trillion charge to clear legacy exposures.

The recovery has been sharp. First HoldCo reported pre-tax profit of ₦653.54 billion for the first half of 2026, up 83.5%, on a return on average equity of 30.4%, which Otedola said is the highest among Nigeria's leading banking groups. He put the full-year forecast at around ₦1.2 trillion.

The company met the central bank's ₦500 billion capital requirement ahead of the March deadline and secured shareholder approval in May for a further ₦253 billion raise, targeting ₦1 trillion in paid-up capital.

"A modern Nigerian economy, aspiring toward a $1 trillion GDP, cannot be anchored on weakly capitalised banks," he said. Stronger capital buffers, he added, are what prevent institutions from being run as personal estates rather than public trusts.

Dividends and valuation

The board committed last week to a payout ratio of around 60% of profit after tax.

Otedola defended it as generous by Nigerian standards but sustainable once capital requirements are cleared, and said the discipline lies in linking payouts to recurring earnings rather than one-off recovery income.

He argued Nigerian banks have been mispriced for years, trading below book value despite strong returns, because of currency volatility and governance concerns rather than weak profitability. First HoldCo now trades at about 1.7 times book with an annualised return on equity near 30%.

Whether that changes the sector's valuation or remains specific to one turnaround, he said, is still an open question the market has not settled.