Femi Otedola, Nigerian billionaire has reportedly sold off his entire shares in Transcorp Plc to Tony Elumelu, the company’s chairman and largest shareholder.
The move puts an end to an intriguing corporate drama that has shocked, rocked, and rolled Nigeria’s capital markets over the past several days.
Sources said the transaction was a negotiated deal between Otedola and Elumelu, which was brokered by prominent, mutual friends of the two tycoons.
It was gathered that Elumelu paid Otedola an 400-percent premium on Transcorp’s closing price on Thursday to acquire his bloc of shares.
This would mean that Otedola, who owned 2.6 billion shares or 6.3 percent of the company, was paid somewhere in the neighbourhood of NGN 12.5 ($0.027) per share, and walked away with a N32.5 billion ($70 million) payout.
Neither Transcorp nor Calvadas Global, Otedola’s investment vehicle, has however, confirmed the development.
Recall that on April 12, Otedola, the chairman of Geregu Power, acquired a 5.52-percent stake in Transcorp, making him the second largest shareholder of the company.
The transaction was consummated between an entity owned by Otedola and AMCON.
Days later, Otedola acquired additional shares, upping his interest in the conglomerate to 6.3 percent.
The acquisition suggested that the billionaire investor was likely to set the stage for a bidding war for control of one of Nigeria’s indigenous and most recognized conglomerates.
The news resulted in a 128-percent boost in its stock price over the past two weeks.
Within a space of days, Elumelu acquired an additional 9.7 billion shares in separate deals to ramp up his combined stake in the group to 10.5 billion shares or 25.9 per cent, cementing his position as Transcorp’s main shareholder.