First Bank or FirstHoldco Chairman, Mr Femi Otedola, on Thursday, acquired additional 369,986,122 shares of the company at N40.06 per share, raising his stake in the institution to 17.56 percent. The total value of the deal stands at N14.82 billion.

Mr Otedola bought the shares through his firm, Calvados Global Services Limited, consolidating his position as the second largest shareholder in one of Nigeria’s tier-1 lenders. Mr Otedola is behind RC Investment Management Limited, who now has 24.92 percent holding in First Holdco as the majority owner.

According to the bank’s third quarter (Q3) financial statement seen by Economy Post, Mr Otedola had 16.1 percent share in the business before Thursday transaction.

Other shares were held by Mr Adebowale Oyedeji (indirect), and Mr Olusegun Alebiosu (direct and indirect), among other investors.

RC Investment

In July 2025, former First Bank Chairmen, Mr Oba Otudeko and Mr Tunde Hassan- Odukale, sold 10.433 billion shares of First Holdco to RC Investments Management Limited.

READ ALSO: First Bank: How Otedola bought Otudeko, Hassan-Odukale’s 10.43bn shares, raised stake to 37%

The humongous First Bank transaction was brokered by First Securities Ltd, a firm within the FirstHoldCo Group. A number of firms were involved in the sell side of the transaction, including First Securities, CardinalStone Securities, Meristem Stockbrokers, Renaissance Capital, Regency Asset Management, United Capital Securities, and Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers.

The shares were acquired at N31 per share in 17 deals, reliable market sources told Economy Post. The buy transaction was made by Mr Babatunde Samuel Sule-led RC Investments Management Limited, a trustee in the transaction.

Mr Sule is the chief executive office of Rennaisance Capital (RenCap). He joined Renaissance Capital in 2018. Prior to joining Renaissance, he had been involved in the origination, structuring and distribution of products for domestic and international issuers across West Africa, according to Business Insider.

However, he did not buy the shares on behalf of Rennaisance Capital. At least no evidence pointed to that. RC Investments Management Limited, linked to Mr Sule, is a broker and trustee, and is not linked to RenCap, according to market sources.

Some stock brokers said RC Investments Management Limited was used by both First Holdco and the Nigerian government as a trustee for the transaction.

Mr Sule-linked RC Investment bought nearly 7.787 billion shares from Barbican Capital and RAML, owned by Mr Otudeko.

The firm also bought 2.647 billion shares from firms linked to Mr Hassan-Odukale such as Leadway Holdings, Leadway Pensure PFA, Haskal Holdings, and Leadway/NNPC Staff Pension Investment.

Apart from Rennaisance Capital, Mr Sule is equally connected to RC Africa Limited, Avuso Payment, Odde Properties, and Green Arrow Services Limited, according to Endole.

Financial experts said the transaction was initiated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to resolve the long-running battle between Mr Otedola and Mr Otudeko, which had earlier hampered the First Bank’s capacity to raise capital.

Earlier court processes

In August 2024, Economy Post had reported a raging fight at First Bank of Nigeria over who owned the largest share. The tussle was between Mr Otedola, and Mr Otudeko who owns Barbican Capital, which is affiliated to Honeywell, an Apapa, Lagos-based flour miller. Oba Otudeko is the Founder and Chairman of Honeywell Group,

READ ALSO: Babatunde Samuel Sule, the face behind Otedola’s newly acquired 10.43 billion shares in First Bank

The contention was about who owned the largest share in First Holdco. Barbican Capital, owned by Otudeko, had claimed that it was the largest shareholder with 15.01 percent stake in First Holdco, alleging that Otedola owned only a 9.41 percent share. Barbican Capital claimed that its 5.38 billion units of shares in the bank had been altered by Nigeria’s oldest bank. First Holdco, however, disagreed, arguing that Barbican could not provide evidence of some of the shares it claimed to own.

First Holdco further argued that Barbican was concealing the fact of a verification exercise by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regarding its alleged significant shareholdings. It noted that only 3.110 billion shares (representing 8.67 percent of Barbican’s total shares) of Barbican Capital’s total shares could be verified by the CBN, while its alleged 2.34 billion shares (representing 6.52 percent) could not be verified.

First Holdco had also claimed that Barbican Capital did not challenge the outcome of the verification exercise carried out by the CBN as the supervisory and regulatory body regarding share ownership. However, Barbican claimed that it had attached a statement by the Central Securities Clearing System Plc (CSCS), which is a computerised depository, clearing, settlement, and delivery system for transactions in securities. Barbican noted that CSCS’ statement showed that as at May 23, 2024, its shareholding stood at 5.386 billion shares.

Barbican went to court to seek clarification. However, the matter was settled out of court in July by the CBN.