Despite Femi Otedola’s ‘Takeover’ First Bank Shares Massively Drops

Following the purchase of major shares by billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, the share price of First Bank Holdings (FBN) Plc recorded a decline.

Naija News understands that this was due to speculators selling off after buying into the bank following the heavy activity on the stock in the course of share purchase by Otedola.

It was gathered that the share price fell by 1.20 percent to N12.40 per share from N12.55 the previous day, while volume traded also took a downward turn, declining to 73.062 million from 350.54 million on Monday, thus representing a 79.2 percent decline in activity level. Deals also slumped by 28.6 percent to 545 from 763.

A dealer from the stockbroking firm to Otedola told Vanguard, “As you are aware, when we were buying for him (Otedola), it attracted more speculators into buying hoping that the price will go up, especially knowing that a negotiated price of N16.00 was done on the stocks.

“Now that we are not buying, it will be difficult to sustain the price, especially now that some of the third quarter (Q3) results of banks have been released and there weren’t any spectacular results. Also remember that price fluctuation is part of the market activities.

“Even when we were buying such price fluctuation was being notice from time to time.

“Some speculators do not have the capacity to hold; so once they notice that we are no longer buying for him (Otedola) they begin to sell-off and once you have more sellers than buyers, the price automatically goes down. We cannot call this price correction until we see a consistent decline in the share price.”

Another dealer, David Adonri, MD/CEO, Highcap Securities, said: “The reason for the rally is now public knowledge. It is no longer news capable of eliciting further reaction from investors. It appears the major buyer who orchestrated the extraordinary demand has achieved his objective. He sees no further need to swarm the market.”

Naija News reports that Femi Otedola is speculated to be the majority shareholder in FBN Holdings having bought 1.82 billion units of the Holdco’s shares to hold 5.07 percent equity stake in the bank.