Otedola Acquires N6bn Worth of Dangote Cement Shares

Billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, has racked up shares worth N6 billion of Dangote Cement Plc in his name, according to market reports.

Africa’s large cement maker Dangote Cement recently outpaced telecommunications powerhouse Airtel Africa to become Nigeria’s biggest company by market capitalisation, currently valued at N8.35 trillion.

Dangote Cement has returned 81.4 per cent in the last 52 weeks and has 17.04 billion outstanding shares.

Dangote Industries Limited, the conglomerate is controlled by Africa’s richest person, Aliko Dangote, who holds 85.8 per cent of the company’s shares.

To shore up the valuation of its stock, Dangote Cement completed two tranches of share repurchases between 2020 and 2022, during which it bought back 166.9 million shares.

Mr Otedola holds the majority stake in the power-generating company Geregu Power Plc, whose market value currently stands at N1.2 trillion.

In 2021, he acquired huge volumes of the shares of FBN Holdings, the parent company of Nigeria’s oldest commercial bank First Bank, in piecemeal via a series of off-market trades to become the biggest shareholder of the financial services group.

Mr Otedola holds 5.57 per cent of the shares of FBN Holdings where he is a director, according to the lender’s 2022 audited earnings report.

FBN Holdings recently surpassed the N1 trillion mark in market value before easing to N967.4 billion on Thursday, shedding 2.53 per cent.

Last April, Mr Otedola purchased the shares of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria summing up to 2.6 billion units in various trades, translating to a substantial shareholding of 6.3 per cent, putting him on track to become the top shareholder of the conglomerate.

However, Tony Elumelu, the biggest shareholder of United Bank for Africa, swiftly accumulated more shares to increase his stake in the company from 2.07 per cent to 25.9 per cent to retain his place on the top spot of Transcorp’s ownership ladder.

Mr Otedola would later sell his stake to Mr Elumelu, giving up the top ownership race.

Furthermore, Nigeria’s stock market is now world’s best after Wednesday’s (January 17) positive close helped the market to beat Argentina, a country it was trailing last week.

Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All Share Index (ASI) rose by 2.38 percent on Wednesday, surpassing 90,000 mark as bulls dominate trade.

The market has risen this year by 20.45percent, amid a week-to-date (WtD) rally of 8.45percent.