Business
Elumelu acts to avoid UBA takeover, Investing N560m in shares.
Elumelu acts to avoid UBA takeover, investing N560m in shares.
Tony Elumelu, the Chairman of Heirs Holding, has invested N560 million to increase his shares in United Bank for Africa.
This was revealed in a notice sent to the Nigerian Exchange Ltd. on Thursday, seen by The Whistler.
Checks showed that in the register of shareholders as of December 31, 2022, Elumelu controls the shares of UBS held by HH Capital Limited, 140,843,816; Heirs Holdings Limited, 1,814,003,900; and Heirs Alliance Limited, 231,086,468 totaling 2,185,934,184 shares.
No shareholder held more than 5 percent of the share capital of the bank except Heirs Holdings Limited, 1,814,003,900, or 5.30 percent.
But the investor, through HH Capital Ltd., got an extra 70,000,000 shares at N8 per share. Elumelu spent N560 million on the deal.
With the deal, Elumelu’s shares through HH Capital had risen to 210,843,816. His total shareholding in UBA is now 2,255,934,184.
Elumelu controls Heirs Holdings, a conglomerate that controls big names like UBA, Transnational Corporation, Transcorp Hotel, Transcorp Power, Heirs Oil and Gas, and United Capital Plc, among others.
The decision may be to prevent the ownership tussle between Elumelu and the Chairman of Geregu Power, Femi Otedola.
Otedola had taken over Transnational Corporation when he acquired a whopping 2.6 billion units of shares, or 6.3 percent, of Transcorp, becoming the highest individual shareholder.
Elumelu forced Otedola out of Transcorp when both parties entered negotiations for Otedola to exit after a landmark deal.
But in reaction, Elumelu, through HH Capital Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) owned by him, acquired 9,697,189,984 units of shares, bringing its total holdings in Transcorp Incorporated to 9,991,173,177 units.
